McGill-Queen's University Press Blog

Hockey, Canada's game?

The current battle over who should have the rights to purchase the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes (Jim Basillie or the NHL) has dominated hockey news from the summer, to the preseason, and isn’t going away with the start of the regular season on October 1. The issue has been taken to bankruptcy court, where a single person – unaffected by the issue – will rule on the decision. Here we must ask, who is being left out of the decision making process, and why? Amongst the flying spittle of lawyers, judges and CEOs, the voices of the players and communities affected by the outcome remain unheard. So, why aren’t we surprised? Because it’s long been known that major league hockey has been commodified, and is a far cry from its community roots.

In an essay included in the recently-published Canada’s Game, (mentioned here, and here) Julian Ammirante discusses the political economy of hockey and “the fragile empire” that is the NHL. He argues that Hockey players – the workers – have organized themselves into the National Hockey League Players Association – a union. From there, they have been able to disrupt the NHL, as seen by the 2004 Lockout. Part of their organizing has meant an ability to “decrease the rate of surplus value of their labour” and work towards a democratic restructuring of production and consumption. In this sense, the NHLPA can be viewed as a turn toward hockey’s community roots.

Ammirante goes on to explore the intricacies of the impact of capitalism on hockey, or rather, the basic economics of hockey as a commodity. He ties the transformations that have taken place in NHL hockey, to the transformations of global capitalism It is argued that as hockey has become intertwined with profit, large investors have “increasingly put their own interests ahead of the game, regardless of the interests of the fans” (203). Ammirante concludes that “something is wrong with major-league sports …the NHL in particular, along with society’s current relationship to it” (204). Given the case of the Phoenix Coyotes, it is hard to disagree; many might agree that the NHL requires systems of reform to compromise between the business of the sport and the integrity of the game.

Resisting the commodification of hockey is possible. While it is hard to imagine the NHL as a de-corporatized body, sports should be “different from other commodities that are produced and sold in the marketplace” (203). Hockey is a fundamental part of Canadian culture and communities rally around it from coast to coast; Ammirante suggests that sports should belong to communities, as their fostering of young athletes is central to the creation of professional athletes. Continuing his radical evaluation, Ammirante proposes that organizations, such as the NHL, should be “structured along non-profit and revenue-sharing lines. However, such a scheme would demand a serious evaluation of capitalist ideology not only in relation to sports but also in relation to economic and political power” (205).

Perhaps this is too idealistic, however Ammirante’s optimism should be applauded. The Basillie–Bettman battle proves that the NHL requires some serious re-grounding and overhaul. Hopefully when this happens, the hockey that grew on backyard rinks and frozen ponds, will find a place at the centre ice of million dollar arenas.

Review and Launch of Memories, Myths, and Dreams of an Ojibwe Leader

  This last weekend, The Winnipeg Free Press reviewed a new MQUP publication: Memories, Myths, and Dreams of an Ojibwe Leader, which will be launched at 8pm on Thursday, September 24, 2009 at McNally Robinson, Grant Park. If you are in Winnipeg, be sure to attend what promises to be a lively and informative night of native and Canadian history. The book is a collection of stories, reminiscences, and myths orally recounted by Chief William Berens to the anthropologist A. Irving Hallowell. Jennifer S.A. Brown and Susan Elaine Gray have skillfully recovered, edited, and introduced Chief Berens' remarkable life and fascinating stories to a new generation of readers.

Praising David Thompson Travels

If you didn't have a chance to pick up this weekend's Globe and Mail, follow this link to John Allemang's piece on Canada's greatest inland explorer, David Thompson. Interviewed for the piece is William E. Moreau, editor of The Writings of David Thompson, Volume I, The Travels, published by MQUP this weekend.

A fur trader in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, Thompson accurately mapped over three million square kilometers of North America while keeping extensive travel journals about his thoughts and impressions of the land. More than an explorer, Thompson was an exceptional prose stylist who balances romantic description with what William E. Moreau calls a "rational, calculating side." Mr. Allemang's story and Mr. Moreau's interview show how Thompson is an early Canadian hero for being so "open-minded, observant and methodical." The story and the book are testaments to a remarkable figure in Canadian history who is also one of the country's earliest -- and most fascinating -- writers.

MQUP author curates photography exhibit in Paris

MQUP author Martha Langford and Sherry Farrell Racette have curated a photography exhibit called Unmasking: Arthur Renwick, Adrian Stimson, Jeff Thomas. The show opens on September 22, 2009 and runs until January 29, 2010 at the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris. If you are lucky enough to be in Paris over the next few months, be sure to see these confrontational representations of First Nations identities. Congratulations to the artists and curators!

For more insight into photography, be sure to take a look at Martha Langford's critically acclaimed books:

Suspended Conversations: The Afterlife of Memory in Photographic Albums

 

"The notion that the album is meant to be performed, or orally narrated is appealing and credible, conjuring images of older family members identifying, remembering and explaining, while occasionally digressing into extraneous personal and family histories for a younger audience … Photographic albums deserve close readers like this one." Border Crossings

Scissors, Paper, Stone: Expressions of Memory in Contemporary Photographic Art

 

 

"An important and beautifully written book -- an absolute tour de force. The exceptionally intimate tone is one of the memorable aspects of the book along with the formidable scholarship and critical acumen. Langford performs this high stakes, high wire act without a slip." Laura Wexler, American studies and women's, gender, and sexuality studies, Yale University

 

Image & Imagination

 

 

 "This impressive and original book offers a new take on photo-imagery and the photo-imaginary." Liz Wells, editor, Photography: A Critical Introduction and The Photography Reader

 

 

LRC review of Stephen Manning's Quebec: The Story of Three Sieges

In advance of the 250th anniversary of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham the Literary Review of Canada has published an excellent review by Jack Mitchell that not only examines recent books dealing with the battle, but also brilliantly synthesizes the historical debate, controversy over the (lack of) commemorations, and toxic political environment for Canada's and Quebec's leaders.

Among the books reviewed is Stephen Manning's Quebec: The Story of Three Sieges (see post below).

Enjoy Labour Day with Lars Svendsen's *Work*

Labour Day is on Monday, so why not spend the last day of your summer reading time with a book on work? From the Art of Living series, Svendsen's book considers why we dread it, why we need it, and how we can -- and should -- balance work with our leisure time.

To know more about the book, read this review from the Montreal Mirror.

Happy Labour Day!

Books for the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham

September 13, 2009 marks the 250th anniversary of an event that continues to shape Canadian and Quebeçois national narratives: the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Few events in continue to cause such debate and controversy, as has recently been witnessed by the cancellation of a reenactment of the battle to commemorate the events of 250 years ago.

 

This hour-long battle that culminated months of siege by the British on the French city of Quebec during the Seven Years’ War has become one of the defining moments of Canadian and Quebec history. While often seen as a foundational moment for what would eventually become Canada, Stephen Manning’s new book, Quebec: The Story of Three Sieges, argues that the battle has been misunderstood and unexamined from its larger historical context. This larger context includes the fact that the Plains of Abraham was not the last time Quebec City was the site of a major conflict: it was attacked by French forces in 1760 in an attempt to recapture the city; and was then put under siege once more during the American Revolutionary War in 1776. Canadian and Quebecois perspectives often seem to indicate that there was the battle in 1759 that ended it all, even when there is much more to the story. So, it is incorrect to remember the Battle of the Plains of Abraham as a French–British conflict that led to a Canada–Quebec conflict when the importance of Quebec's military past is to North America.

 

Although in the mid-eighteenth century, the fort had largely tactical importance, the city of Quebec had – by the time of the American Revolution – become the bastion of British forces in North America and central to the politics that would occur throughout the continent. Manning charts the political and military history of the city throughout the Seven Years’ War, the battle of St. Foy, and the eventual siege of Quebec by American revolutionary forces, in a thrilling narrative which offers an entirely new perspective of the history of North America. Perhaps by reconsidering the larger context of these battles it will be possible to move past some of the ongoing conflict and controversy of this anniversary.

 

 If you would like to know more about the Battle of the Plains of Abraham and the history surrounding it, you should also take a look at Stephen Brumwell’s exceptional biography: Paths of Glory: The Life and Death of General James Wolfe.