Do Canadians hold sport in such regard that we're willing to close schools to allow students to watch the Olympics? (Source: Olympics.org)

Is there any another event that would justifiably allow schools to call an unnecessary and temporary halt to teaching other than a strike? Seriously, think about it.  You wouldn’t see an entire city’s school board call a hiatus for a single day, let alone two weeks over a movie release, or a new museum exhibit, or a visit from a foreign head of government, or a concert or whatever other form of entertainment/attraction that may come through a city. Sport is the exception to the rule.

The perfect example of this rule was displayed during the most recent Olympics last February in Turin, Italy when the Canadian men’s curling team reached the gold medal final and in turn set off a pseudo national holiday in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Brad Gushue led rink from Newfoundland became such a big story and focal point in the province that the provincial government decided to shutdown schools early and gave students a half a day off school just so they could experience this historic Newfoundland sporting event live. The Provincial Education Minister provided justification for the decision, “It's a historic moment for Newfoundland and Labrador. We certainly want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to see the game. It's exciting for the young people of this province."

While there may not be a direct educational component that can be taken away for students by taking time off school, experiencing major sporting events can serve as important building blocks in people’s lives that define memories and allow us to enjoy rare unifying moments in our country’s history. Sport is perhaps the only thing that can unify our country – we certainly can’t agree on politics, languages, our part in war or why Canadians find Corner Gas amusing.

We’re definitely a country that values our sports. How else do you explain the fact that we’ve got it featured on our currency? The back of the five dollar bill features a mural of winter sports being played by kids.  You certainly don’t see football, baseball or basketball highlighted on American money or imagery of soccer on British money. It just shows that we hold sport in the same regard as former politicians, the Queen and various assortments of birds.  

Each year CBC, the government-funded public broadcast network airs nothing but playoff hockey in primetime no less, on a nightly basis from mid-April until June.  The hockey programming pre-empts all other programming and forces the nightly news to ungodly hours when games stretch into OT. When it comes down to it we’re sports obsessed.  No complaints here. There are certainly worse associations that countries around the world are saddled with.