Anyone who thinks they wouldn't go south of the border if the offer was better money, way more purchasing power, lower cost of living, unlimited top quality medical care, better weather all year round, and a culture that idolizes their success, is lying to themselves.
Oh what about the Orange Man? What about wealth inequality? Abortion? Scary guns? Give me a break. None of that matters when you are making a few million a year.
At our Monday editorial meeting, when Scott told us the basic outline of the idea that would become this column, I quipped that I was also requesting a trade to Florida.
This does not only apply to professional athletes. A neighbour of mine worked at Magna in St. Thomas. His marriage failed, so he asked for a transfer. He went to Tennessee or somewhere similar, got an instant raise in nominal dollars because the job paid more in the States, pays lower taxes, enjoys a superior cost-of-living, more home for the buck, less crime (no crime?), far better access to healthcare, functioning public services, higher community standards, and an all around better life.
Canadians would be shocked to the point of disbelief at how high our prices are and how low and dysfunctional our standard of living is compared to many other places.
It's only stubbornness borne of inferiority and provincialism that results in this "rah-rah-Canada we're the best" head in the sand mentality. Canadians travel weirdly less, and less meaningfully, than they think, and are constantly exposed to a media drum that tells us to accept our lot in life because the alternative is horrifyingly scary.
Yet if you are even somewhat successful here, and not even close to sports star level, your equivalent in the US is living a life you could only dream of.
I was jousting with someone yesterday on this very subject.
I have known approximately 30 folks who left Canada for the USA at various stages of their lives, for a variety of reasons.
Some were athletes, some were doctors and nurses, some were entrepreneurs and some were developers. Some were folks who had topped out of career advancement in Canada and left for work opportunities.
The common factor? Not a single one of them returned.
The crux of the current pro-Liberal moral panic madness is that it is ok to be poor and dysfunctional as long as we are less like the US. This is going to set our prosperity back another 10 years.
I maintain that Donald Trump, just by existing, has made Canadians hurt themselves far more than he ever could if he directly tried to harm them.
Two posts on this page thread speak explicitly of “Donald Trump’s attempts to annex Canada”.
In my opinion, President Trump has taunted and trolled Canada, but has revealed zero policy initiatives designed to actually carry out this supposed “threat”.
So, President Trump has guided the course of Canadian politics for 18 months because of our national inferiority complex, and because the worst Prime Minister in the history of our Country claimed that the taunts were an “existential threat”.
I think your premise is sound but it really leads us as well to "Why do most Canadian tram GMs seem to do so poorly in putting together a winning product?"
The egregious example is Stan Bowman who takes a team that made it to two consecutive cup finals, screwing around with successful goaltending, offering Knoblauch a three year extension, and then when the teams performance dropped with lesser goalies fired the coach (with a big severance) and brings in buddy Babcock whose reputation is inconsistent and marginal?
The problem isn't with the players, it's the lack of talent in the front offices.
I don’t know much about European soccer, but it certainly seems the NHL has a habit of rotating the same names into different situations, and hoping for the best.
Very different from, say, NFL football, for example.
I don't think anyone can be surprised that someone who's so fully aligned themselves with the Trump administration wants out of Ottawa. The fact that he remained captain of the team in our nation's capital after actively supporting a leader who's called for our annexation is disgraceful on the part of the Senators as an organization.
Canadians are thinned skinned and the treatment of US players after the Olympics was abhorrent, but what else to expect from the Elbows Up crowd. US players are taxed for their games in Canada and also states where they play the game, but yes, even the pile on taxes you see in Houston for example (about 5 last time I sayed in a hotel there), there is an advantage if all you care about is money. In Calgary, I see players out, whether watching their kids in minor hockey or at times, on the ODR. Les Canadians are suffering horrific tax, but players still want to play there. But here is a wake up call for Canadians. Our cities are not the end-all, be-all compared to the big US cities. Every city has an underbelly, but if you watch the Europeans (who no longer get their news from Le Monde et Le Guardian), are having a hell of a good time with Americans in the States, whether in pubs, on sidewalks or stadia. The USA is not all bad, and Canada is not all good either. but the taxes in Canada and the fact that 25 percent of the workforce is tied to the Government, and learning Carnie wants to bail out developers so the State can own our residences, should cause Canadians to ponder.
The poor welcome that American gold medallists got in Canada had almost everything to do with the extent they yolked themselves to the Trump admin following their win while Trump was very much in the 51st state and annexation talk. It's frustrating for us to see how few in the media acknowledge that. Brady was an 8M dollar employee of an organization in Canada's capital and deserved some form of censure from us. Booing an anthem is not the way though
The Tkachuk brothers always wanted to play together, now they are and it will make the Panthers hard to beat. It was clear from March forward that Brady wanted out of Ottawa, and I dont think Friedman was wrong about the political motivation in this case! Ottawa is a liberal cesspool, they booed him because he went to the Whitehouse, after the win!
I watch the PWHL with my wife. The NHL has become something I don't recognize any longer. For me, our days of winning Stanley Cups in Canada ended with the last cup win by Montreal in 1993. There is anger in the land now that CBC is out of HNIC business. CBC lost HNIC in 2013. Canada's NHL teams will always fill seats in this country but its been three decades since that Montreal win. For me, I doubt the Stanley Cup will be ever be won again by a Canadian team. Money calls the shots. Canada is expensive to live in and nobody works for free.
I couldn't disagree more. Canadian teams will be doomed because their American talent doesn't want to play here? 🥱 Who cares? Don't let the door hit them on the bum on the way past!
All our teams have to do is draft accordingly. I would take Canadian talent over American any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
This isn't a big deal. Compare world junior championships won. We have something like 25. The Americans? 🤣 Not even close!
Trouble is Rob, if you have been paying attention, is the Michigander's are very good and there are more and more of them every year. We are not keeping up and as hockey becomes more popular as it is (Gold Medal's help) will further drive this trend. Its a problem. Winning helps (see Montreal) but this is happening.
Let’s boil this scenario down to first principles before we get all bent out of shape. Brady Tkachuk wanted to move to Florida to play with his brother and (try to) win Stanley cups. Oh, and yes, pay no state income tax.
As an Oilers fan I am painfully aware that Florida has a great cup contending team.
By communicating this to his team early, he allowed them to get a far greater return than they otherwise could get. It’s was actually a respectful move if you look at it in that light. Matthew Tkachuk provided Calgary the same courtesy and despite it not working out (haha), they got what was perceived to be a great return at the time.
We have seen Canadian players make the same decision to return home. John Tavares famously left Long Island for Toronto (what a horrible mistake). Nazeem Kadri left Colorado for Calgary on a 7 year deal.
That said, America is awesome. Anyone who says differently either doesn’t go or hasn’t been there. Despite their current politics they still have us beat in most regards… especially if you’re in the income bracket these hockey players all are. Thats the hard truth of it. And, for American players, it’s home.
"Show me the money". These are professional athletes and hockey is a business. They will be attracted by income, taxes and lifestyle. Everything else is marketing.
Don't much care about this one way or the other but it could be that star players don't want to play for a perennial loser and that's pretty much how Canadian hockey looks these days and has for some time.
There are issues. The biggest one, IMHO, is that the salary cap doesn't factor in local taxation rates, so the playing field isn't actually level. So if the playing field was levelled, that might have an impact. Canadian fans are passionate...to the point of being insane. Marner left Toronto because of the fans and the media....the media putting the Leafs playoff failures entirely on him. Sure, the responsibility to produce comes with the big cheque, but playoff hockey and regular-season hockey are almost 2 different sports. There is also little to no patience and understanding in Canadian markets that success is cyclical. You can't win all the time. Current Leafs management doesn't understand that s they put Band-Aids on a broken leg. Sometimes, you have to go to the bottom and rebuild. That takes patience and determination to stick to the plan. John Tavares, a fabulous player, broke the Leafs' financial plan, but they took their shots. Now they need to start over and get young and develop.
I think there is a problem for Canadian teams. It's the unbalanced cap, the toxic media, and the true toxicity that is social media. I wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting to play here when you're "deserving" of harassment and abuse if you don't win it all every year. Or maybe as a Leafs fan, I'm just used to losing.
This is a well-written article, and there is a lot going on here. Lots of moving parts, as they say.
The thing I like is that the author observes that it is the notion it isn’t just one thing driving the trend: lower taxes, anonymity, opportunities post career, better healthcare, better weather, living in your home country………, each has a factor.
One aspect not discussed was the cultural and attitudinal differences in hockey players of today, versus those of yesteryear. It is not just that athletes today have more power; it is the way they choose to deploy that power.
Anyone who thinks they wouldn't go south of the border if the offer was better money, way more purchasing power, lower cost of living, unlimited top quality medical care, better weather all year round, and a culture that idolizes their success, is lying to themselves.
Oh what about the Orange Man? What about wealth inequality? Abortion? Scary guns? Give me a break. None of that matters when you are making a few million a year.
At our Monday editorial meeting, when Scott told us the basic outline of the idea that would become this column, I quipped that I was also requesting a trade to Florida.
As always, KRM, a thoughtful post.
This does not only apply to professional athletes. A neighbour of mine worked at Magna in St. Thomas. His marriage failed, so he asked for a transfer. He went to Tennessee or somewhere similar, got an instant raise in nominal dollars because the job paid more in the States, pays lower taxes, enjoys a superior cost-of-living, more home for the buck, less crime (no crime?), far better access to healthcare, functioning public services, higher community standards, and an all around better life.
Needless to say, he no coming back.
Canadians would be shocked to the point of disbelief at how high our prices are and how low and dysfunctional our standard of living is compared to many other places.
It's only stubbornness borne of inferiority and provincialism that results in this "rah-rah-Canada we're the best" head in the sand mentality. Canadians travel weirdly less, and less meaningfully, than they think, and are constantly exposed to a media drum that tells us to accept our lot in life because the alternative is horrifyingly scary.
Yet if you are even somewhat successful here, and not even close to sports star level, your equivalent in the US is living a life you could only dream of.
I was jousting with someone yesterday on this very subject.
I have known approximately 30 folks who left Canada for the USA at various stages of their lives, for a variety of reasons.
Some were athletes, some were doctors and nurses, some were entrepreneurs and some were developers. Some were folks who had topped out of career advancement in Canada and left for work opportunities.
The common factor? Not a single one of them returned.
Not one.
And yet the Elbowzoes still maintain the fiction that it's better up here.
The crux of the current pro-Liberal moral panic madness is that it is ok to be poor and dysfunctional as long as we are less like the US. This is going to set our prosperity back another 10 years.
I maintain that Donald Trump, just by existing, has made Canadians hurt themselves far more than he ever could if he directly tried to harm them.
Interesting point.
Two posts on this page thread speak explicitly of “Donald Trump’s attempts to annex Canada”.
In my opinion, President Trump has taunted and trolled Canada, but has revealed zero policy initiatives designed to actually carry out this supposed “threat”.
So, President Trump has guided the course of Canadian politics for 18 months because of our national inferiority complex, and because the worst Prime Minister in the history of our Country claimed that the taunts were an “existential threat”.
Good going.
Maybe the difference in the hockey thing is that the American players see the shockingly substandard lifestyle, and say “not gonna stand for it.”
Canadians, on the other hand, just continue to stumble along, muddle through, continue to vote Liberal, all the while hoping for the best.
The scary guns are a selling feature.
I think your premise is sound but it really leads us as well to "Why do most Canadian tram GMs seem to do so poorly in putting together a winning product?"
The egregious example is Stan Bowman who takes a team that made it to two consecutive cup finals, screwing around with successful goaltending, offering Knoblauch a three year extension, and then when the teams performance dropped with lesser goalies fired the coach (with a big severance) and brings in buddy Babcock whose reputation is inconsistent and marginal?
The problem isn't with the players, it's the lack of talent in the front offices.
The NHL is turning into the English Premier League for coach and manager longevity.
I don’t know much about European soccer, but it certainly seems the NHL has a habit of rotating the same names into different situations, and hoping for the best.
Very different from, say, NFL football, for example.
I don't think anyone can be surprised that someone who's so fully aligned themselves with the Trump administration wants out of Ottawa. The fact that he remained captain of the team in our nation's capital after actively supporting a leader who's called for our annexation is disgraceful on the part of the Senators as an organization.
Canadians are thinned skinned and the treatment of US players after the Olympics was abhorrent, but what else to expect from the Elbows Up crowd. US players are taxed for their games in Canada and also states where they play the game, but yes, even the pile on taxes you see in Houston for example (about 5 last time I sayed in a hotel there), there is an advantage if all you care about is money. In Calgary, I see players out, whether watching their kids in minor hockey or at times, on the ODR. Les Canadians are suffering horrific tax, but players still want to play there. But here is a wake up call for Canadians. Our cities are not the end-all, be-all compared to the big US cities. Every city has an underbelly, but if you watch the Europeans (who no longer get their news from Le Monde et Le Guardian), are having a hell of a good time with Americans in the States, whether in pubs, on sidewalks or stadia. The USA is not all bad, and Canada is not all good either. but the taxes in Canada and the fact that 25 percent of the workforce is tied to the Government, and learning Carnie wants to bail out developers so the State can own our residences, should cause Canadians to ponder.
The poor welcome that American gold medallists got in Canada had almost everything to do with the extent they yolked themselves to the Trump admin following their win while Trump was very much in the 51st state and annexation talk. It's frustrating for us to see how few in the media acknowledge that. Brady was an 8M dollar employee of an organization in Canada's capital and deserved some form of censure from us. Booing an anthem is not the way though
The Tkachuk brothers always wanted to play together, now they are and it will make the Panthers hard to beat. It was clear from March forward that Brady wanted out of Ottawa, and I dont think Friedman was wrong about the political motivation in this case! Ottawa is a liberal cesspool, they booed him because he went to the Whitehouse, after the win!
I watch the PWHL with my wife. The NHL has become something I don't recognize any longer. For me, our days of winning Stanley Cups in Canada ended with the last cup win by Montreal in 1993. There is anger in the land now that CBC is out of HNIC business. CBC lost HNIC in 2013. Canada's NHL teams will always fill seats in this country but its been three decades since that Montreal win. For me, I doubt the Stanley Cup will be ever be won again by a Canadian team. Money calls the shots. Canada is expensive to live in and nobody works for free.
I couldn't disagree more. Canadian teams will be doomed because their American talent doesn't want to play here? 🥱 Who cares? Don't let the door hit them on the bum on the way past!
All our teams have to do is draft accordingly. I would take Canadian talent over American any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
This isn't a big deal. Compare world junior championships won. We have something like 25. The Americans? 🤣 Not even close!
Trouble is Rob, if you have been paying attention, is the Michigander's are very good and there are more and more of them every year. We are not keeping up and as hockey becomes more popular as it is (Gold Medal's help) will further drive this trend. Its a problem. Winning helps (see Montreal) but this is happening.
Amen,
I’ll take a hockey player from Sask over Michigan any day.
Let’s boil this scenario down to first principles before we get all bent out of shape. Brady Tkachuk wanted to move to Florida to play with his brother and (try to) win Stanley cups. Oh, and yes, pay no state income tax.
As an Oilers fan I am painfully aware that Florida has a great cup contending team.
By communicating this to his team early, he allowed them to get a far greater return than they otherwise could get. It’s was actually a respectful move if you look at it in that light. Matthew Tkachuk provided Calgary the same courtesy and despite it not working out (haha), they got what was perceived to be a great return at the time.
We have seen Canadian players make the same decision to return home. John Tavares famously left Long Island for Toronto (what a horrible mistake). Nazeem Kadri left Colorado for Calgary on a 7 year deal.
That said, America is awesome. Anyone who says differently either doesn’t go or hasn’t been there. Despite their current politics they still have us beat in most regards… especially if you’re in the income bracket these hockey players all are. Thats the hard truth of it. And, for American players, it’s home.
"Show me the money". These are professional athletes and hockey is a business. They will be attracted by income, taxes and lifestyle. Everything else is marketing.
Don't much care about this one way or the other but it could be that star players don't want to play for a perennial loser and that's pretty much how Canadian hockey looks these days and has for some time.
There are issues. The biggest one, IMHO, is that the salary cap doesn't factor in local taxation rates, so the playing field isn't actually level. So if the playing field was levelled, that might have an impact. Canadian fans are passionate...to the point of being insane. Marner left Toronto because of the fans and the media....the media putting the Leafs playoff failures entirely on him. Sure, the responsibility to produce comes with the big cheque, but playoff hockey and regular-season hockey are almost 2 different sports. There is also little to no patience and understanding in Canadian markets that success is cyclical. You can't win all the time. Current Leafs management doesn't understand that s they put Band-Aids on a broken leg. Sometimes, you have to go to the bottom and rebuild. That takes patience and determination to stick to the plan. John Tavares, a fabulous player, broke the Leafs' financial plan, but they took their shots. Now they need to start over and get young and develop.
I think there is a problem for Canadian teams. It's the unbalanced cap, the toxic media, and the true toxicity that is social media. I wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting to play here when you're "deserving" of harassment and abuse if you don't win it all every year. Or maybe as a Leafs fan, I'm just used to losing.
This is a well-written article, and there is a lot going on here. Lots of moving parts, as they say.
The thing I like is that the author observes that it is the notion it isn’t just one thing driving the trend: lower taxes, anonymity, opportunities post career, better healthcare, better weather, living in your home country………, each has a factor.
One aspect not discussed was the cultural and attitudinal differences in hockey players of today, versus those of yesteryear. It is not just that athletes today have more power; it is the way they choose to deploy that power.
Good article, and I enjoyed reading it very much.
Let's rein in the enthusiasm a bit, Rob. No ban for this, but a warning.
Fine. I'll repost without the adult language.
However Matt, what the hell? You and Jenn swear on your podcast.
I don't mind swearing. I do mind telling an entire group of people to fuck off. That's different, and you know that.
Lol. Ok I suppose your right.
I'll try and remember that going forward.
Have a good day Matt