If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail

Proving that perception will shape how you see everything, journalist Martin Leclerc from www.ruefrontenac.com chose, instead of celebrating our gold medal in men’s hockey, to whine about the fact that a Quebec team does not exist. In a bitter blog entitled “Notre èquipe de hockey n’existe pas” he bemoans the fact that, even though Quebec has a significant roster of capable hockey players, only three found themselves on the national team. “J’aime bien Shea Weber. C’est un défenseur extraordinaire! Mais c’est un Canadien anglais,” he writes. « J’aime bien Sidney Crosby. On l’aime bien tous Sidney. En plus, il a jouè son hockey à Rimouski. Mais c’est un Canadien anglais.”

Leclerc spits out “Canadien anglais” like it’s an insult; an explanation of why he can’t fully connect with the team, an affront to his fellow Quebecers. The way one would say “I like Michael Vick. He’s a great football player. But he’s a rotten human being,” and the latter prevents me from liking him.

His comment bothered me so much that, even though I barely follow hockey, I went and researched the national roster. As i suspected, it represented pretty much every corner of this vast country.

The women’s national team, by the way, had seven Quebecers on its roster, but that apparently was not worthy of mention to Leclerc, who chose to ignore one basic truth: A coach will choose the best players – irrelevant of language. Even if Klingon is the only language you speak, if you’re good, you’ll make it on the team.

But according to Leclerc’s insinuation, language, and not skill, should have been the deciding factor in the team’s selection in order for him to be able to identify with it.

When Bilodeau won the first ever gold medal for Canada on home soil, I highly doubt that English Quebecers were thinking: “I really like Alexandre Bilodeau. He’s an extraordinary athlete. But he’s a French Canadian.” They were too busy rejoicing.

La Presse columnist Nathalie Petrowski in her Tuesday column complained about the “orgy” of Canadian flags, which reminded her of “the good old days of Maoist propaganda”. Funny how her sense of nationalism should be praised, yet everyone else's is an affront to her patriotism.

There were real gripes, to be sure. There were issues with the lack of French representation in both the opening and closing ceremonies and my ears are still bleeding from John Furlong’s sad attempt to speak French (you had four years, John, you could have practiced a little).

But what happens when you gripe about silly non-issues is that you reduce the significance and weight of any real gripe. When you complain about everything, you place the focus on nothing.