Daily BrewSay it isn't so, Toronto: Canadiens, not Leafs are Canada's Team, poll shows
Which NHL squad is really “Canada’s team”?
Don’t tell the folks at Rogers, but it isn’t the Toronto Maple Leafs, the long-standing staple of Saturday night English television coverage.
According to a new Forum Research poll commissioned by CityNews, the Montreal Canadiens are, in fact, Canada’s most popular team from coast to coast.
The poll, conducted Oct. 3-5 involving 1504 randomly-selected Canadians over the age of 18, showed that 23% of hockey fans in Canada root for the Canadiens, while only 12% support the Leafs or the Vancouver Canucks.
This shouldn’t be much of a surprise to Leafs fans. A 2009 poll published in the Toronto Star by the Historica-Dominion Institute showed 33% of fans identified the Canadiens as “Canada’s team,” and only a quarter said it was the Leafs.
And according to an Angus Reid poll in 2012, the Leafs were actually voted Canada’s most hated team, with fans associating the franchise with terms like ‘arrogant’, ‘dirty’, ‘boring’ and ‘overrated.’
“In a funny finding,” wrote Maclean’s reporter Nancy Macdonald at the time, “Canadians view Toronto much the same way as their hockey team. Both the Leafs and Torontonians are seen as arrogant, dirty, disrespected and overrated.”
Dirty? Well, that’s just a low blow. Then again, Toronto does have Doug Ford running for mayor.
Andrew Cohen of the Dominion Institute told the Star that the Canadiens’ reach stretches beyond French-English boundaries.
“The Canadiens have always been a wonderful mix of French and English,” he said. “The Canadiens are in many ways emblematic of Canada.”
The long history of the Habs and Leafs also gives them an advantage over other Canadian teams, Cohen said.
“Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton are newer teams and they just haven’t got that iconography that the Canadiens have,” Cohen said. “It’s hard to call yourself a national team if you haven’t been around for a long time.”
According to the new Forum poll, 7% of Canadians consider themselves Calgary Flames fans, while only 5% say they support the Edmonton Oilers and Winnipeg Jets. A scant 3% are Ottawa Senators supporters.
For some perspective, two American franchises scored better than some of the Canadian teams – the Pittsburgh Penguins garnered 6% of Canadians’ support, and the Philadelphia Flyers clocked in at 4%.
But the good news is that a full 53% of Canadians polled considered themselves hockey fans in general, and 82% said that hockey is important to Canada’s cultural and social fabric. And a whopping two-thirds of all Canadians watched the gold medal game of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
“Even among those who claim not to be fans, hockey is seen to be an important cultural signifier in this country, and when two-thirds of the adult population watches a single game, you know that’s true,” said Forum Research President, Dr. Lorne Bozinoff, in a statement.
“I don’t know if this could be said for baseball, basketball or NFL football in the U.S., or cricket or Premier League football in the UK.”
So Canadians love their hockey, and right now, they love their Canadiens.
But cheer up, Leafs fans. As I’m sure you’re getting used to hearing, there’s always next year.
