Thread by @paulgknox

With respect to all, we don’t have energy to spare on arguing about this. All hail all of our team and individual athletes! Go 🏀🏒🏸🏏🥍🏉⚾️⚽️🎾🏏⛳️🥌⛸🏂🛷⛷🤸‍♀️🏄🏼‍♀️🏊‍♀️🚴‍♀️🎨 and all the rest! But in 30 years if there’s no outdoor ice south of Yellowknife, and young city folks ... 1/

https://twitter.com/richardapeddie/status/1134441998893617152

2 ...are dropping from heatstroke on outdoor courts and diamonds and soccer fields, and we can’t fix our municipal tennis courts and arenas because provincial governments have diverted our tax money to giveaways to their land-developer cronies, ... 2/

3 ... there won’t be any contending teams or Olympic champions to root for.

Political factions, chiefly well-financed groups on the right, are trying to widen the divisions among us. About the climate crisis. About reproductive rights. About the autonomy of cities. ... /3

4 About Indigenous rights. About racism. About immigration. About space for dissent. About news media. About corporate influence in Parliament and legislatures. Progress has stalled on levelling the field for opportunity. Our health care makes world-class professionals ... 4/

5 ... work in a system that’s often set up to defeat its own ostensible goals. The quality of education is under attack and access to it remains a challenge. Safe, healthy housing is just a dream for many; it’ll recede further as the climate crisis deepens.

Against this ... /5

6 ... backdrop, is arguing about which sport is more Canadian, or most represents the Canada of today, really worth the energy? Individual sports have their individual and collective supporters. It’s great that a basketball final foregrounds new supporter communities. /6

7 Raptors audiences may be younger and more diverse than the Maple Leafs’. As for the Blue Jays, the commercials for ED and diabetes products attest to their audience’s age. But we have something for everyone: global #1 soccer, underrated Canadian football, and of course ... 7/

8 ... this traditional Indigenous territory’s first team sport, lacrosse - now played professionally in an arena rather than an outdoor field, but still. Plus rugby, cricket, tennis, many of the aforementioned played at world-class level by women - and that’s just what’s ... 8/

9 ... watchable live in Toronto, let alone other centres & what’s on TV/radio/streaming.

I’m not saying there are no issues. One of the big ones is access. In big cities, ice hockey rivals horse racing as the “sport of kings” in terms of what it costs at the elite level. 9/

10 Between ice time, transportation to rinks, fees & gear (carbon-fibre sticks, moulded skates, concussion-era helmets) it can be a huge expense for a family or individual. To say nothing of ticket prices. And speaking of ticket prices, while Jurassic Park is a mosaic ... 10/

11 ... the fans at Raptors’ Game 1 looked pretty white to me.

A far better sports argument to have is about access to training facilities and support for amateur athletics. It’s an old one but it’s more nuanced now as our population becomes more diverse. It’s not racist ... 11/

12 ... to note that people with certain body types are more likely to excel at particular events. (Or, like me with mine, to excel at no sport ever, despite messing around in a couple of dozen.) Sport and athletics should never define or stereotype a community, but it’s ... 12/

13 ... widely acknowledged that sports contributes to confidence, self-esteem, health, protection from bullying & harassment, mitigation of family & mental health issues and more. As access to facilities and training time expands, so do these benefits. They’re much more ... 13/

14 ... worth our public money than a lot of the things we spend it on.

So let’s support sports & athletic prowess wherever we find them & not argue about which sport is “more Canadian.” I’ve only skimmed the surface of athletic Canada, pro & am.
Let’s hear about more! 15/

16 (So glad I finally got a chance to use all those emojis ...) 16/16

@threadreaderapp unroll pls & thanks