Canada's exclusion from soccer's World Cup is barely, if at all noticed across this land. Joyous celebrations erupt on streets following the conclusion of games. Instant gridlock strangles main thoroughfares around the country, with revellers proudly waving the flags of their favoured nation.
Everywhere we look, the national flags of countries such as Italy, England, Brazil, Portugal - even the Ivory Coast - are flapping above car windows and being draped over condo balconies. The Canadian flag? Conspicuous only by its absence.
Is this behaviour a proud product of Canada's multiculturalism, of unwavering tolerance?
Or is all the flag waving just brazenly unpatriotic? Do first-, second- ,and even third-generation immigrants remain loyal to their country of origin? Is this the mosaic gone wild?
The opinions about flag protocol during the World Cup appear to be as diverse as Canada's cultural makeup itself.
LET THE FLAGS FLY
Tim Daigle, a transplanted New Brunswick native living in Calgary, sees nothing peculiar with Canadians proudly hoisting the flags of other nations.
"If we would ever qualify for the World Cup, things would change," said the 43-year-old, at Calgary's Ship & Anchor pub.
Dirk Derstine, 44, born and raised in Toronto, was flying the French flag flying from the back of his bicycle just off College Street.
"I don't think that people who are rooting for, say, Portugal are dissing Canada by flying the Portuguese flag," he said. "I think what they're expressing is a love for a particular team. I don't think it's an anti-Canadian sentiment. Canada's team is not there. It's not surprising not to see the flag."
Not surprisingly, the French flag is prominent in Quebec during the World Cup. But what about the Canadian flag?
"You know I'm in Quebec, right?" said Derek Melo, who works at the La Cabane restaurant in Montreal, said by telephone. "The Canadian flag was very hard to come by anyway. Now it's even harder."
LEAVE THOSE FLAGS AT HOME
Ardent nationalists say, keep the Italian and Argentine and Spanish and Australian flags in your basement.
Some World Cup enthusiasts are deferring diplomatically by suspending an international flag and Canadian flags. Vehicles have one on the left-side window, and the other on the right side.
"I don't have a problem with the multicultural flags flying but I don't think any foreign flags should fly without the Canadian flag as well," said Fatima of Toronto, who requested her last name be withheld lest her children be harassed. "I am an immigrant and I've been here for over 40 years. The reason why I am an immigrant and my parents came here is because our country of birth has nothing to offer. We came to be better. And I feel that if this is the country that we've adopted, and the country which has been good to us, we should always honour it."
Flag waving in general has gone too far at sports events, says a Queen's University professor of global development studies.
"But my sense of it, it's kind of a healthier nationalism than what we might see at other elite sporting events," David McDonald said.
ONE DAY FOR THE MAPLE LEAF?
With the World Cup scheduled to run through Canada Day on July 1, perhaps all those other flags should be stowed in favour of giving the day over to the Canadian emblem?
"I don't think you should be relating Canada Day to the World Cup," said Hamir Sabmani, a 20-year-old "hard-core" Brazilian soccer fan who was born in Trinidad and Tobago and lives in Toronto. "They're two different things. Canada Day is once a year. The World Cup is every four."
Jeffrey Reitz, a professor of sociology, ethnic and immigration studies at the University of Toronto, believes the support of outside nations by Canadian soccer fans could bring the country closer together.
"In some ways the fact that so many people here have been drawn into the World Cup can be a force for unity," he said. "It's one of the positive sides to our multiculturalism, that one's diversity can be a unifying element."
But wasn't that what Sidney Crosby's goal at the Olympics supposed to do?