WARMINGTON: Canada sends message to Trump with 4 Nations win
'You can't take our country -- and you can't take our game,' PM Justin Trudeau posted after Connor McDavid scored the winning goal
Article content
In the end, no one was booing O Canada as once again this country went down to the United States and sent a message that we cannot be taken and will never be a state.
The true north, strong and free made that very clear to President Donald J. Trump and everybody else pushing the 51st state nonsense.
Recommended Videos
tap here to see other videos from our team.
WARMINGTON: Canada sends message to Trump with 4 Nations win Back to video
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Trump may have given Team USA a pep talk on the morning of the game, but in the end, a much-maligned by the 47th president Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had the last laugh.
“You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game,” Trudeau posted to social media seconds after Connor McDavid scored the winning goal in overtime on a beautiful pass from Maple Leafs star Mitch Marner.
And they won the hard way — coming back from a defeat and teaching a lesson that when it comes to hockey and Canadian patriotism, never underestimate Canucks. When it comes to tariffs, trade or overtime winning goals, Canadians will fight. And Trump learned that here.
Canada avenged not winning a Stanley Cup since 1993 and shook off the bad karma from fans booing The Star-Spangled Banner during the first game with the Americans last Saturday in Montreal.
When they raised the Canadian flag in TD Garden in Boston after this dramatic win Thursday night, it was one of those rare payback moments and you could see that on the faces of players, from captain Sidney Crosby to hero goalie Jordan Binnington, who were all singing the words loud and proud.
It was certainly a better version than the one that opened the game. There was booing of O Canada, but perhaps not for the reason Canadians thought.
Even most Canadians who loathe the idea of disrespecting a national anthem were surrendering to the notion that perhaps this time the booing was justified.
At least of the singer.
“That was the absolute worst butchering of the Canadian National Anthem I have ever heard,” X poster Khadija wrote. “French mispronounced, wrong English words all together. It was such absolute trash I’m convinced it was deliberate.”
She was talking about Chantal Kreviazuk, who took to the ice at TD Garden to lead the country into the final matchup in the 4 Nations Face-Off.
And that tweet was not the only post like that. Seems the booing was not just for political reasons, but for a poor performance by the award-winning Winnipeg singer who didn’t seem to know the words, the tune and even find herself in key.
As one fan noted, Roseanne Barr, famous for her U.S. anthem nightmare, perhaps would have done better.
But apparently there was more to this than just a brutal performance. Kreviazuk confirmed a lyrical switch from “in all of us command” to “that only us command,” which was intentional in response to the annexation rhetoric coming from the U.S.
She just took this upon herself as if she could change the song as a piece of “art.”
In response to one X post saying her changing of the words was patriotic, Kreviazuk tweeted both a strong arm and a Canadian flag emoji.
Then, after first posting an explanation on Instagram that included saying “I am sorry if my performance of our national anthem rubbed you the wrong way. I was a little off-pitch or if it wasn’t perfect in its tone” and “I am sorry if you think we’d be better off annexed,” the Grammy-nominated artist updated her Instagram post, saying she’s “fine with the haters” that were “mostly bots” and she feels “only all your incredible passion for our country and your kindness.”
She said she “didn’t plan this or plot” changing the words but “during soundcheck I sang the wrong words ‘in all thy sons command’ out of habit and when I analyzed the new line I thought wow this could mean something so pertinent to our country in this moment with a change in just two words, three syllables.”
She said she “didn’t dream that such an effect would be had by deciding to go out there and do it. But it really felt like the right thing to do.”
Since in Trudeau’s Canada the national anthem gets changed so many times, the crowd didn’t really know what she did. They just knew it was off.
Much debate broke out as this effort was more understood. Most Canadians didn’t seem to get it or appreciate what she tried to do. It’s never a good idea to mess with the lyrics of O Canada — even if it feels good to try to make a point. But it also shows how fluid and woke Canada is as a country where we can change our anthem at will.
They would never do that in other countries. No one ever seems to mess with The Star-Spangled Banner.
For most Canadians watching — and they were not bots — this was just an ugly performance of O Canada.
“Chantal Kreviazuk just massacred our national anthem,” said the account Sharon Tate Forever. “Booing would have been less insulting.”
“Chantal Kreviazuk should be embarrassed and owes the country an apology,” posted Bruce R. Rogers.
Perhaps the good news, according to Collin Rugg, is “the boos were so loud that it was hard to hear the anthem at some points.”
Maybe this was bad news for the country Trump keeps referring to as America’s 51st state. Maybe along with losing our sovereignty we may just lose our anthem, too, if it continues to be sung like that.
The outcome of the game is important and will go down in Canadian hockey history. But the score in the stands amongst the fans is important, too. And the booing aside, the atmosphere in Boston was as electric as it was Saturday in Montreal. Both teams on the ice were pumped up and the same goes for their fans.
While there is all of this political turmoil swirling around this event, there is no question that the 4 Nations Face-Off has been great for hockey. It’s clear there is parity amongst Canada and the U.S. now, which results in amazing hockey games.
The booing of the anthems is not something hockey fans would normally do. But when the U.S. president keeps trolling our country, threatening our nationhood and calling the prime minister “governor,” there is going to be animosity toward it.
Trump pulled one of the most provocative moves of all by phoning Team USA in their dressing room after the morning skate to try to fire them up.
Trudeau got into it as well with his tweets — including one with a video of him at a game with the words “playing for keeps.” And playing for keeps is something the players certainly did. The action in this game was frantic. Both teams were fired up and tried to put on a show. It was like war.
There is great debate about how Canada should handle the tariff and trade war with Trump. But there doesn’t seem to be much debate on how this anthem was performed by Kreviazuk. Luckily many couldn’t hear it through the booing.
And even luckier, Canada won the game dramatically in overtime and there was a better O Canada sung by the players and fans themselves without changes and without a boo heard from anywhere.
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.