Does Canada love hockey too much?

Roy MacGregor put out an interesting column this week in the Globe and Mail about how the NHL's lockout would be a good thing for Canada. You can read it here.

As many people know, I'm a die hard hockey fan. This article did put some issues in perspective when thinking about hockey in Canada. While I do agree with some of MacGregor's points, for the most part, I think he is off base with a lot of his arguments.

Let's start with his point about CBC's "Greatest Canadian" series held during last lockout. MacGregor pointed out that Don Cherry made the list ahead of Canada's first Prime Minister John A. Macdonald.

I remember watching this series and questioning how Don Cherry made the list - Yes Wayne Gretzky made the list, but that is completely different. He was an icon in North American sports. While I don't mind Cherry as an on-air personality, I thought it was insulting that he made the list - especially ahead of our first Prime Minister.

MacGregor's point that we overvalue hockey-related individuals is probably right. Yes, there are a few exceptions, but having Cherry has one of our greatest people is just odd. And that's not even including Cherry's anti-French and European comments you can hear every Saturday night on CBC.

Where I do disagree with him is the fourth paragraph were he mentions defining moments in Canada's history for Baby Boomers. MacGregor says that in the US, their moment was the assassination of JFK. In Canada, he says it would be "a puck going into a hockey net in another continent," which in non-sarcastic terms means Paul Henderson's Summit Series clinching goal in Russia.

I find it insulting that he decides what is deemed important and not important for a countries history. If MacGregor wanted to dig a little deeper, I'm sure a lot of Baby Boomers in the US would say the Miracle on Ice would be another "Where was I?" moment.

In fact, I'm sure you could go to most countries in the world and see that a sporting event has made a cultural impact. Sports does hold a lot of value in society. Being that the eleventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks just passed, I thought it would be a good way to show sports value on society.

While I'm not a George W Bush fan, this moment has always stuck out to me following the attacks - and I think it stuck out for a lot of Americans as well. It may have been a simple ceremonial pitch, but it had a much deeper meaning as seen from this video.

Anyways, even with the disagreements I have with MacGregor, I thought it was a good, thought provoking column.

Hopefully Canadians don't have to experience another year without the NHL, because whether MacGregor likes it or not, hockey will always hold an important place in our country.