Having grown up a Canadiens fan in Montreal, Ken Whitaker moved to Vancouver Island with one firmly held belief: The Toronto Maple Leafs suck.
“I’m a Habs fan,” he says. “That, and a fan of any team the Leafs are playing.”
Which is why the first thing he did after buying into the 17 Mile House in 2005 was erect a sign reading “No Maple Leaf fans.”
Which is why anyone wearing a Toronto sweater or hat in the historic Sooke Road pub can expect to find a two per cent Maple Leafs surcharge added to the bill.
Which is why the menu features an item called Maple Leafs Poutine: “In usual Leafs fashion, a cold overpriced dish served with underperforming gravy, ice-cold fries and a side of disappointment.”
The price? $67. Why? The Leafs last won the Stanley Cup in 1967. Well played, Whitaker. Well played.
The poutine has been on the menu for years, but reached a wider audience only in the past few days after someone posted a picture online. CTV Toronto did a story. New York’s MSG Networks took notice, too. The item landed on TSN’s website.
The good-natured Leaf-baiting is nothing new to the healthy contingent of Toronto fans who patronize the 17 Mile, though.
“Nine out of 10 think it’s pretty funny,” Whitaker says. They take pictures of the bills with the Leafs surcharge and send the photos back east. One guy even asked for the poutine (though the server refused to take the order). A line was drawn, however, when the pub briefly introduced urinal pucks bearing the Maple Leafs crest. Rather than deface the logo, the Toronto fans shunned the public washroom in favour of the one used by staff.
Give this to Leafs fans: They don’t waver. Canucks fans might be on and off the bandwagon like a drunken tuba player, but Toronto supporters fly their colours, win or lose. Or lose and lose.
And give this to Canadian sports fans in general: They might live or die with their teams — stoically accepting a death in the family, but sobbing uncontrollably when Eddie Lack gets traded — but they still respect the mirrored passion of rival fans. Even the most partisan Stephen Harper-hating Habs loyalist might despise the Toronto-raised prime minister for muzzling scientists or gaming campaign-finance rules, but still admire him for wearing his Leafs love on his sleeve. Likewise, even Salmonbellies supporters give Premier John Horgan props for not compromising on his fidelity to the Victoria Shamrocks.
With the odd ghastly exception, opposing fans find ways to co-exist. During the height of the often-bloody Battle of Alberta of the 1980s, a white line was painted down the middle of the Crown and Anchor pub in Red Deer, which lies halfway between Edmonton and Calgary. Oilers fans drank on one side, Flames supporters on the other. (Flames fans still like to order a drink called the Gretzky: wine on ice.) Overseeing it all, a whistle in its mouth and a referee’s jersey around its neck, was a mounted deer head known as Antler Van Hellemond.
Not sure that would happen in some other countries, where the concept of friendly rivalry gets lost in the violent tribalism that fuels soccer riots and the occasional world war.
Not sure the concept holds up in the social media age, either. In fact, it was being hounded online that led former ESPN producer Justine Gubar to write Fanaticus: Mischief and Madness in the Modern Sports Fan, a book that examines what it is that causes some people to go off their nuts.
And go off their nuts is what they occasionally do: In an ugly scene at Vancouver’s home opener last month, several men in Canucks sweaters put the boots to a young Oilers supporter. Is that really a surprise in a culture that knee-jerks to demonization any time someone offers an alternative perspective? This is our default setting on Facebook: Instant rabid outrage. It’s no longer enough to hold your own views; you must shout down those of others.
Those hardened positions need not even be rooted in reason. In August, a Monmouth University poll found six in 10 Trump supporters said there was absolutely nothing the president could do that would cause him to lose their approval. Trump is their tribe. Trump is their team. No friendly competition with Team Hillary either, no laughing over a two per cent Lock Her Up surcharge.
Perhaps they should go to the 17 Mile and learn that rivals need not be enemies.
