Canada’s red-and-white tide of patriotic fervour ready to rise in 2026

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Fifteen years ago, they held the world juniors in Buffalo. Unsurprisingly, the majority of fans on hand were Canadian.

Buffalo thought it knew Canadians, but it did not know them when hockey was added to the mix. The foreign horde showed up for two weeks and ran non-violent riot in the town. There was, by some reports, both hooting and hollering, possibly drunken.

The Buffalo News was so taken aback that their lead columnist, Donn Esmonde, wrote a lament for the city’s “shattered stereotypes” of their “normally, placid, polite, patient” neighbours.

(I waded into this fight swinging both my columnistic handbag and a few of my own stereotypes. Esmonde retorted acidly. A peace was brokered by our editors. Esmonde and I later met up in Buffalo for a long, boozy night. Great town, great guy. There is still hope to salvage this whole thing we’ve got going on now.)

As I recall it, Canada was kind of embarrassed by the Buffalo incident, but not actually. In an historic first, none of our politicians felt the need to provide an official apology.

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We were deep in the post-prandial haze of our great feast at the Vancouver Olympics, and really feeling ourselves. You don’t like Canada? Then go kick rocks, pal.

Then, for more than a decade, we receded. You don’t like Canada? Tell us more, and we’ll probably agree with you.

Which is why they should be prepped and ready in Milan. The red-and-white tide has been building for years, and it’s about to come in at the Olympics.

Every sporting year has its themes. For 2026, the theme is jingoism.

For a while there, it became vaguely embarrassing to be too into your own country. So provincial. So mid-20th century.

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And did you know to an absolutely certainty who your main street or your library was named after? What did he do in the war? Safer not to care too much.

We were all citizens of the world now. No need for national feeling.

Then the U.S. started going around zoinking the financial rug out from under everyone, and Russia started a dirty tricks campaign in mainland Europe, and suddenly everyone feels better at home, where they can keep an eye on things.

I get it. You thought we had traded our way past war and tumult. Blame it on all the Star Trek you watched in your youth. Now here it comes again. While it’s bad for business, it’s great for sports.

Canada has two opportunities for sporting all-timers this year.

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The Olympics is the obvious one. This will be all about sticking it to America. America seems to get that.

In an unsubtle sop to the average paisan, the U.S. just announced it was calling off a planned 107-per-cent tariff on Italian pasta. The new tariff (up to 29 per cent) is hobbling, rather than crippling.

Even the donuts at the U.S. Department of Commerce seem to get that seeing U.S. athletes booed at every venue from Bormio to the San Siro won’t be a great look. Still, I have a lot of faith in Italians to see through this ruse. They understand revenge.

Within this context, Canada becomes the great U.S.A. killer. We’re the only ones who can put a hurt on them where it counts most – hockey, two ways.

I mean, is Sweden up for this? I’d be delighted to see it, but no. Nobody’s talking about annexing its country. Denmark has just as big a grievance, but all its hockey players are firemen. Nobody’s rooting for Russia any more, but it’s not even there.

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It’s us or nobody. We know it, and so does everyone else. For once, Canada has a righteous score to settle. Everybody knows that, too.

I see a world in which Canada, however briefly, becomes the global proxy for everybody’s beef with the Trump family. If it happens, it will be a national high-water mark in terms of international influence. Even more than the time Celine Dion won Eurovision.

Canada won’t feature higher on the medal standings than the U.S., but if we run the table on it in hockey and curling, that would be success.

A few fighting gestures from the athletes (and maybe a couple of actual fights) would help, too. We’ll see if the stultifying caution which has permeated every aspect of Canadian public life in recent years starts flaking off. That would also be success, but an inward-looking sort.

The World Cup beginning in June will either build on what was accomplished at the Olympics, or offer a chance for a do-over.

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What would a win there look like? First off, a pristinely organized event. Please God, no Tasering of the Chilean national soccer team (which Toronto police did in 2007). Everything should go off without incident. And if something untoward happens on the U.S. end of things? That would be a terrible shame.

The Canadian team has a primary mission – win its first game. We’ve never won a game at a World Cup. If Canada wins that first game against as-yet-unnamed European competition (so, Italy), this country will go bonkers. Everything that comes next is the party after that party.

Other things could add to this festive sense of cultural renewal – a Canadian club winning the Stanley Cup (probably not) or the Blue Jays going deep in the playoffs again (maybe). But there is nothing, nothing, nothing like an Olympics and a World Cup to get the patriotic blood up.

That we get our shot at both in the same year, with our best teams in place, the country angry and primed to celebrate, the citizenry filled with fellow-feeling as it hasn’t in ages, is a gift. We may never see this confluence of factors again. Even if it doesn’t work out, it’s going to be a great few months of Canadian moments. But if it does come together, oh boy.