AS I SEE IT COLUMN: Open letters to North American hockey fans

Dear American hockey fans,

With NHL playoffs well underway and several Canadian teams involved in the chase for Lord Stanley’s Cup, you will likely hear Canadians booing your national anthem a lot more often than normal.

Canada is incensed with the way your convicted criminal of a president is treating us; a friend, ally and neighbour.

Our boos are directed at Trump. We can’t stand him. He is a repugnant, racist buffoon.

In fact, your abhorrent president elicits such deep-rooted revulsion here in Canada, that he single-handedly upended our elections. Our Conservative candidate for Prime Minister, Trump wannabe Pierre Poilievre – also referred to up here as Trump-lite, Trump’s mini-me or Canada’s Trump – worked hard to emulate Trump.

What was the result? A few months ago, Poilievre was up by 27 points and had started ‘measuring the drapes’ in the Prime Minister’s residence. Now, thanks to Trump insulting our Prime Minister, imposing crushing tariffs and threatening to make Canada your 51st state, Poilievre’s Trump-esque ideas and Trump-like behaviour resulted in an embarrassing and humiliating loss, one of the biggest electoral collapses in Canadian history.

Canada’s dislike and distrust of your convicted felon president is very real. Canadians believe Trump’s unique combination of cruelty and stupidity makes him not just an existential threat to Canada, but to life on this planet, as he has the nuclear codes.

He is why we boo your national anthem. So please don’t take the boos personally. Our issue is with him, not you.

Enjoy the NHL playoffs!

Dear Canadian hockey fans,

Here’s our chance, Canada. With the Jets, Oilers, Leafs, Habs, and Senators in the playoffs (as of press time), we’ve got a great opportunity to show America what we think of their deranged, criminal president.

The booing after the playing of the U.S. anthem during the NHL regular season served its purpose and garnered tons of attention. Well done!

Now’s our time to take things to a whole new level.

I originally thought it would be a good idea if fans in the stands made a point of putting their hats on during the U.S. anthem, or to turn their back on the U.S. flag or sit down, but those aren’t very “Canadian” for a polite and respectful country like ours.

Plus, it may make American fans and the U.S. media think we’re mad at all of them.

So here’s an idea that will make it instantly obvious that our boos are directed at Trump the felon, not America the country. Chant “Don-ald sucks!”

When those clips get played in the U.S. media it will be clear to everyone that we are expressing our disgust solely at their convicted criminal of a president and not the American people.

The other beautiful thing about chanting “Don-ald sucks!” is that it will enrage thin-skinned Trump. Until now, when he heard the booing of the national anthem, he will have deluded himself into thinking that Canadians aren’t booing him, that we’re booing America.

But when he hears “Don-ald sucks!” even his superpowers of delusion and stupidity won’t prevent him from understanding that our collective anger is directed solely at him. He will see and hear how noxious he is in Canada.

This is our chance to speak directly to the guy who called our Prime Minister “governor,” who is threatening to take over our country and who has thrown the world economy into chaos.

Trump lives in a bubble where he has shielded himself with sycophants, yes-men and the uber fake Fox News right-wing propaganda channel, so he almost never gets exposed to negative coverage.

Let’s change that.

These NHL playoffs present a unique opportunity where ordinary Canadians can get under the president’s skin with enthusiastic chants of “Don-ald sucks!”

Make it loud. Make us proud.

Buy Canada. Bye America.