Hockey & Immigration: Bridging the Cultural Gap in Canada

Herky Cutler

Herky Cutler, Contributor

A friend of mine, Peter, recently told me about his experience of immigrating to Canada from Mongolia, and he shared what his perceptions were of the compulsory course on Canadian culture he had to take. While he appreciated the content of the course, he found it to be “formal” and lacking in substance for him to be able to integrate  what he learned with the “man on the street” on a day-to-day basis. When I asked Peter what he thought might have been more helpful, he immediately said “hockey!” He went on to explain that everyone talks about hockey and if he understood the game, he would have felt a part of something, and able to contribute, rather than feeling left out.

 There is no question that hockey plays a significant role in the lives of Canadians and can unify the country in ways very few things can. In 2010, during the Olympics, the gold medal game between Canada and the United States drew the largest audience for a single television event in Canadian history. The overtime goal by Sydney Crosby giving Canada the gold medal set off a sequence of celebratory events around the country that was unparalleled.


So, check it out. What if immigrants to Canada were offered a training course on learning about the game of hockey as a way to understand Canadian culture? What if, through learning about the game of hockey, immigrants also learned about aspects of hockey like teamwork, perseverance and dealing with adversity, which would be valuable learning outcomes in anyone’s life? What if this new knowledge and understanding of hockey gave immigrants a way to integrate into Canadian society more readily and with more confidence? And, what if, through learning about the game of hockey, immigrants encouraged their children to play the sport? Hockey Canada might be very interested in such an outcome.

Makes sense huh? I’m working on it…smiling…let me know if you have something to add!

A number of  music icons like Donna Summer and Robin Gibb have passed away recently, and those events led me to thinking about the concept of time. What is time? How much time do I have left in this physical world? How does the passing of time affect who I am and how I feel? How much time do I waste? When is the right time to do something new and different? What else can I really count on but time?

“Time is passing non-stop, and we follow it with clocks and calendars. Yet we cannot study it with a microscope or experiment with it. And it still keeps passing. We just cannot say what exactly happens when time passes.” Science Daily 2005

“We just cannot say what exactly happens with time.” Isn’t that an interesting thought? Seconds keep on ticking and we can’t stop them. Days come and go. Years pass by, and eventually we are back into the dust. I, for one., do NOT take time as seriously as I should. My time here is finite. I don’t know where or when it will happen, but there will be a time that I will no longer exist in this physical form.

So I”m taking the time now to ponder this notion and choose, yes, CHOOSE, how I spend my time. There is no one or nothing compelling me to waste time, spend time being idle and non-productive, ignore the passage of time, etc. It is ALL my CHOICE! The only time I have any control over is right NOW!

I choose to use my time to be productive, to be of service, to do the next right thing. What about you?

Pink Floyd knows what I’m talking about…