In Canada, politics are second only to hockey as the national sport

Only in this country could a non-existent hockey rink in Québec City drag politicians and pundits alike into a national debate.

We Canadians love our hockey so much that we’re biding our time before the start NHL season by making political sport of the possibility of a new arena in Québec City, the potential site of a future NHL team. Premier Jean Charest has pledged to help fund the arena, and Stephen Harper has angered budget-conscious voters by hinting the government will chip in $180-million (although yesterday he put a damper on that idea).

Although a debate over a skating rink could hardly get more Canadian, the National Post’s Jeff Jedras says that government funding of sports franchises is actually uniquely American. “Americans have always been eager to throw hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into sports stadiums where millionaire athletes play for billionaire owners,” he writes, but Canadians have “always expected pro-sports to pay its own way. It has been an interesting dichotomy … given the stereotype of Canadian interventionists vs. American free-market worshipers”

His Post colleague David Asper says that it’s elitist to think “that taxpayer money should never be used to support professional sports.” After all, “governments often have little or no problem funding concert halls, theatres, art galleries and other bricks-and-mortar venues where cultural events are performed.”

Colby Cosh rebutts Asper’s argument on macleans.ca today, pointing out that skate parks, restaurants, and recording studios are all culturally valuable, but “Should all these things be nationalized and paid for by the state?” At least art galleries are relatively accessible to the public, while NHL franchises are “are owned by a profit-maximizing cartel” that bleeds fans dry, while excluding those who can’t afford tickets.

Stephen Harper made a cryptic speech Monday, in which he said he had to be fair to all Canadian cities. He could have meant the government is prepared to give arenas to everyone, but the Edmonton Journal’s Paula Simons is sure what the PM meant was “‘If I buy an ice cream cone for you, I'll have to buy one for all your cousins.’” And “when your dad says that, it doesn't mean you're all getting ice cream. It means no one's getting any.”