And that s not all. They want to establish American tax rules, meaning lower taxes, for athletes employed by Canadian teams. That s right. While Canadian doctors, researchers, entrepreneurs and scientists flee Canada for the United States to avoid our oppressive taxes, Ottawa s fat cat politicians want to reduce taxes for hockey players, some of whom earn their living with their fists rather than with their skills. Tax breaks are so out of character for Ottawa s money-grubbing politicians, there can be only one explanation, as anyone who regularly reads the BC Free Press has probably already guessed.
Hockey is the people s opiate in Canada.
Politicians can indulge in just about any twisted whim, and can abuse the public trust, as long as Canadians are occupied watching their home town hockey heroes compete for the Stanley Cup. For that sole reason, politicians fear the demise of professional hockey in Canada. Not because hockey binds us, including Quebec, as a nation. And certainly not because the ice arena represents Canada s only remaining sacrosanct meeting place untouched by bureaucratic political correctness. Ottawa fears professional hockey s demise because no government would survive the wrath of voters should Canadian hockey franchises suffer a wholesale collapse, especially while Canada s top players abandon their country to play for American fans paying U.S. dollars.