Junior Team Canada no longer enjoys the success to which it had accustomed us. The time has perhaps come to create a Quebec team, not so much to win more often than to generate enthusiasm and better train the next generation, says the author of this letter.
Posted at 1:00 p.m.
Dominic Courtois
Professor of geography at Collège Bois-de-Boulogne
The setbacks of Team Canada Junior (ECJ) and the ever-decreasing presence of Quebec players have revived calls for the creation of a Team Quebec Junior (EQJ). If Mathias Brunet rightly points out that EQJ would not win more championships than ECJ1for the geographer that I am, the question must be asked differently.
As a geographer, I am particularly sensitive to ways of managing territories that allow maximum efficiency to be drawn from the human forces in place. To achieve this, you must build on your strengths rather than restrain them. In this regard, the current structure of ECJ is not the most interesting that the International Ice Hockey Federation would authorize for the Canadian territory, which could offer more than one competitive team.
Canada could promote the development of all players on its territory, and reinvigorate its social dynamism, by maximizing its teams according to the nations present on its territory. The Quebec, Indigenous and English-Canadian nations of Canada must take advantage of all possible opportunities to enhance their development, and the pride and communion that sport provides are among the best cultural actions to do so.
Who would dare to claim that there would not be more enthusiasm throughout Canada if Quebec, English-Canadian and Indigenous national teams could compete against each other and take on the world in our favorite sport?
The media attention and stories of the achievements of our local champions would be a tremendous engine for community life. Canada would demonstrate more maturity and much greater functionality by exploiting its full potential. Although it is more complex to find a winning formula for the 1.8 million Canadians from Indigenous nations, this does not take away the advantages, the first of which is talent development.
-Development and participation in sport
Everyone agrees that hockey in Quebec is experiencing an unprecedented slump. However, as Mathias Brunet correctly points out, the opposite is happening in several small countries such as Slovakia or Austria…
Being able to evaluate EQJ’s performance each year would provide a precise diagnosis of the health of Hockey Quebec and its shortcomings to be corrected. The EQJ would even allow the deployment of a style of play specific to Quebec.
For comparison, could one claim today that Slovak hockey would be better off if it were included in a majority Czech team like in the days of Czechoslovakia? That Latvian hockey would be better developed if he was still in the Russian team? The new parity in sport is a challenge that should motivate us to improve our ways of doing things and excellent news for a possible EQJ. If this parity allows Latvia, with its 1.9 million inhabitants, to beat ECJ, imagine the electrifying stake of a part of Quebec against the ROC!
It is obvious that our junior players would develop more by participating in tournaments with EQJ rather than watching ECJ on television. With more players from their hometown in international tournaments, the summits of sport would become more accessible for our young people and our local associations.
Canadians should be well placed to understand that commitment is more important than demographic mass for success, as demonstrated by our record against the Russian and American giants. But let’s not forget that sport is not practiced solely on the condition of victory. What motivates in sport is above all the pleasure of playing and improving, the spectacular stories that come from it and the chance to fight to win. All things that Canada and Quebec could benefit from more with the creation of a Team Quebec.
1. Read the article “World Junior Championship: no, an all-Quebec team would not have done better…”
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