Keep Adding, Why Don’t You

CBC   is reporting that a French publisher is demanding that the music at the Bell Centre must have more French content. With all the reasons that we know already why some players don’t come here, should there be more added?

What a farce! Already players don’t want to come to Quebec to play hockey for reasons such as, the taxation rate, the language debate, not being able to send their kids to English schools, the fact that even if they already know four languages, and could only play for the Montreal Canadiens for one season, why don’t they speak french, the constant nit-picking by the French media, and so on. Are people going crazy?

Last time I checked, some of the top selling albums in Quebec belong to 50 cent, Shania Twain, Kelly Clarkson, see any pattern there? You know for a society that prides itself on the French in it’s province, they sure love English music!

I have French in my blood, I’m bilingual, and believe that if one comes to Quebec to live, then they should learn to speak French, but if you are a hockey player, not knowing how long your stay in Montreal is, should you really be forced to speak it?

What in the world is the difference what music is played at the Bell Centre? The music is there to entertain the crowd, and possibly the players as well, and I guarantee that even the French speaking people in the crowd enjoy the top ten English hits of the music world!

With the Habs being first in the East this season, and having a good team, even Bob Gainey stipulated that it would hopefully be easier to entice players to come to Montreal, well guess what, unless you pay that player 11 million dollars, that player will look at the language issue here and stay away.

The political parties here make it a point to constantly argue the language issue here, but this is sports, not politics! Look Toronto is slated to have the NFL’s Buffalo Bills play a few games there for a few years, what if that was Montreal, would the French activist politicians say that the Bills would have to learn French as well?

Sports is sports, leave it that way. In Quebec, a person who’s father did not attend English school in Quebec can’t go to one, so players from the United States are out of luck, unless they send there kids to school in Hawkesbury, or Ottawa, that is ridiculous. Our taxes here are too high, another reason why if we do land a superstar, that we would have over pay him to compensate the tax difference between us and the States. Saku Koivu being the captain of the Habs is constantly peppered about the fact that he has been here for 13 years and doesn’t speak french, who cares! Sure he could have made an effort, but does that change any-one’s life?

In Montreal we are hard on our players, we don’t like players who mail it in during games, but I believe that no person, who calls themselves Habs fans would give a damn if Koivu, or Alex Kovalev, Mike Komisarek, or Sergei Kostitsyn scored the game winning goal in the seventh game of the Final series to win the Stanley Cup, yes it gives the fans something to follow when a player is from here, and speaks French, sort of an identity that they see on the team, but in the end, it wouldn’t matter who scored the game winning goal, as long as we won.

Leave the Language issue for the politicians, it has no place in hockey, the music at the Bell Centre could have a little more French content, but the fans listen to English music anyway, so what is the difference? Perhaps the reason is so we can show the rest of Canada how ignorant we are. Please, leave the political arguments in the Senate, and leave hockey alone, there are already too many reasons for players not to come to Quebec to play hockey, don’t give them anymore, the Habs did well this year, and have a chance to get some good free agents, don’t kill the opportunity, or do you never want to see a great team, and only a good one?