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It must be tough to be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. As a proud Winnipegger stranded in Toronto, I’ve taken much delight in the annual disappointment the Leafs deliver to their supporters, as they find new and ingenious ways to fail to even make the playoffs.
   
This week, as if the team’s woes weren’t enough, Leafs fans endured an ugly public dispute between GM Brian Burke and obnoxious TV personality Don Cherry over a flagrant transgression by head coach Ron Wilson.
   
His transgression? Failing to clap during a tribute to Canadian soldiers before a game.
   
According to Cherry, this demonstrated Wilson "couldn’t care less" about the troops — grounds for a verbal lashing on Hockey Night in Canada, one of Canada’s most popular programs. To be clear, Wilson is no peacenik; he’s taken his team to training sessions with the military and joked with the media about wearing army fatigues behind the bench. He and Burke have bragged about the fact that the Leafs have one of the closest relationships to the military of any NHL franchise — though Mark Chipman seems bent on challenging that title.
   
In sum, three Toronto hockey personalities are fighting over who loves the troops most, while the organization that pays their bills —directly or indirectly — is floundering its way into an eighth straight season without a playoff appearance.
   
As usual with Don Cherry, hockey has taken a back seat to an ultra-conservative agenda that demands uncritical and unequivocal support for the military. While it might be nice to imagine that Cherry is a 77-year-old infant with few supporters, in actuality he enjoys the consistent backing of the CBC, the entire network of Sun newspapers, and liberal and conservative politicians across the country, not least Rob Ford, the buffoon mayor of Toronto.
   
In the realm of pro sports, the pressure to conform to a pro-military ideology has never been so intense. One can hardly forget the way Winnipeg’s celebration of our returned NHL franchise was quickly co-opted into a photo-op at 17 Wing. For denouncing this pandering to Canada’s violent military machine, I had my face plastered into the Winnipeg Sun with a "dishonourable mention." Similarly, there was little space for meaningful critique of the Toronto Raptors’ decision to wear camouflage jerseys this season — and when former-Blue Jay Carlos Delgado protested the war in Iraq by staying in the dugout during the singing of God Bless America, he was predictably booed. It seems even the mildest deviations from the ‘support the troops’ mantra are disciplined quickly and intensely. Ironic, since we’re routinely told those troops are fighting for our ‘freedom.’
   
In Canada, it stands to reason these demands of ideological conformity are driven, at least in part, by an awareness that there is a lot less to be proud of in the armed wings of the Canadian state than there used to be. We like to think we are better in the world than the United States but, in the past decade, we’ve bombed civilians and submitted prisoners to torture in Afghanistan, we’ve participated in and supported illegal overthrows of democratic governments in Central America, and we’ve even turned the violence against our own citizens, as in the mass arrests, beatings and detentions of peaceful protestors during the G20 Summit.
   
So if it’s not self-evident that Canadian guns always do good, perhaps it’s time to insist there be space to have a mind of one’s own and express criticism when it’s necessary. And, for the sake of unfortunate Leafs fans, let Ron Wilson focus on hockey.
   
Tyler Shipley is a writer/researcher and a founding member of The Consumer Goods.