The one talking to you here is the average hockey fan. My three sons played with enthusiasm – and with much more success than their father. And whatever bad things can be said about the “arena” atmosphere, it’s a great team sport.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
But if strong government intervention is needed, it is not to straighten out our national sport. It’s to develop a culture of physical activity in general.
I would go so far as to say that the political fixation on hockey is part of the problem. A sport that I love, I insist, but which is quickly abandoned by the masses after adolescence.
Consider that the premier of Quebec himself announced the establishment of a committee on the future of hockey in Quebec, as if a crisis required state intervention.
The committee, made up of several stars from the hockey world, has just submitted its report. It is full of sensible findings and recommendations – we specialize in children who are too young, there is a lack of technical support, arenas, structures for girls, it costs too much, we don’t focus enough on fun, and so on.
But what really motivated François Legault to get involved is the constant thinning of the Quebec elite in professional hockey. While the Finns, Swedes and others are progressing, Quebecers are declining.
What annoys him is the dilution of the national symbol.
This is undoubtedly food for thought and reform for hockey people. And even for the Minister for Education and responsible for Sports, Isabelle Charest.
But what should mobilize the government, Health and Education first, is not the decline of hockey. It’s a sedentary lifestyle in general.
It is striking to see the attention received by the Denis report, compared to that reserved for the 2020 report for the same minister, entitled “For a physically active Quebec population”. This document reviewed the research on “healthy lifestyles” and made a series of recommendations to get people moving, as recommended by the World Health Organization – and thousands of studies. All this to reduce the incidence of disease, improve mental health, reduce morbidity.
You will tell me: a report released in a pandemic year is really not lucky. It’s true.
Nevertheless: what is in this document is much more urgent to communicate and implement. But there were no stars as spokespersons…
“No sport has received as much attention from the Quebec government as ice hockey,” reads the Denis report last Thursday. This is the result of a very particular context, that is to say in particular the number of followers and the place that this sport occupies in the media and in Quebec culture. »
We can not say it better.
This is precisely why we must tirelessly draw attention to the general importance of physical activity and the development of a culture of sport-participation.
There is no contradiction between the development of elite hockey, and other elite sports, and the promotion of physical activity in general, you might say.
Without a doubt.
But the resources are not unlimited, let us ask ourselves the question: should we invest hundreds of millions to build arenas (Quebec has 395, compared to 450 for Alberta, which has 45% fewer inhabitants) , or for gymnasiums? Trails? Cross-country ski trails? For hockey technical advisors, or physical education teachers?
Yes, I too would like both. But we won’t do both. And I know that a new arena financed by a “national” program (because it is suggested to “raise hockey to the level of Quebec’s national sport”) sells better than an athletics track and equipment for the schools.
The Denis report, while taking great care not to damage our “professional” model of junior hockey too much, advocates a rapprochement between school and hockey. Nothing radical, but that’s it. And so much the better if the hockey people end up working with the cities, which manage the arenas.
Besides that, there is so much to do to fight sedentary lifestyles, and so little political energy.
It is this contrast that is bewildering. So much noise for our beloved national spectator sport. So little determination to fight a sedentary lifestyle. We have plenty of hockey stars available to spread the good news about their sport – our sport.
We miss Pierre Lavoie.
If the public authorities at the highest level have to get involved in a “sports problem”, it seems to me that we have to start by getting people to walk, run, roll as much as possible, from the CPE to the CHSLD.