One could no longer cut the air with a knife after 撸奶社区Nation council member Dale Harry concluded the provincial all-candidates' meeting question period with a playful enquiry into the politicians' support for the Vancouver Canucks.
After nearly two hours of lobbing pitches to the Liberal, NDP and Green Party candidates, everyone could agree on the wit of Harry's question: "What are you going to do to ensure the Canucks win the Stanley Cup?"
Tension melted away as everyone laughed, many applauded, and smiles reached even the faces of our candidates. Neither a long massage nor a stiff scotch could have worked such wonders.
The scene was very telling.
No matter how much we butt heads helmeted with facts and figures over independent power projects, government funding or the carbon tax, we all wave flags and rally behind our boys in green and blue through the playoffs. The Canucks are one of the few things we can all get behind and truly believe in.
When I was in journalism school, one of my professors explained the importance of a newspaper's sports section simply but poignantly: people need a bit of good news to relieve them from all the bad.
The statement sounds even truer today as the economy spirals and employment opportunities disappear. After all, Game 2 versus the Chicago Blackhawks may have stung but I'm sure it felt a lot better than swine flu.
Seems ironic, doesn't it?
Joe and Joanne Canuck struggle to pay a mortgage and feed their children, hoping they still have jobs the next day to keep them afloat. Meanwhile, Hockey Night in Canada is their traditional respite, where Joe and Joanne Canuck forget about their worries and cheer on professional athletes who make millions of dollars to play a game they love.
Yeah, life isn't fair. And perhaps the cathartic value of your favourite sports team is worth the millions the athletes make. I certainly am more convinced of that when every second vehicle on Highway 99 has at least one wet Canucks flag flapping violently in the rain. (A random musing: the most number of flags I've seen on one local vehicle is eight I almost felt compelled to offer a supportive honk.)
But we have to step out of the car to really see where Canucks mania dwells - our local businesses. There are two shops in particular that have more Canucks memorabilia than you can shake a hockey stick at. Cutters Barber Shop in Garibaldi Estates and Valleycliffe General Store are hockey havens for their respective communities on opposite ends of town.
Cutters' customers have helped owner Danielle Childs fill the shop with everything from Cliff Ronning's autographed stick to 1970s goalie Gary Smith's mask.
And last week, Canuck's owners sent Matt Carrat of the Valleycliffe General Store a Canucks jersey signed by the entire team out of appreciation for their dedicated d茅cor.
Each Trevor Linden hockey card and Mats Sundin poster is a beacon of hope in these tough economic times. So ask not what you can do for the Canucks, but what the Canucks can do for you.
