Canadian sports fans are booing the US anthem. But do Americans care?

The Star-Spangled Banner has been heartily jeered north of the border after Donald Trump announced tariffs. Similar protests have happened before

It’s not as if national anthems are the only way of telling that many pro sports leagues straddle the border between Canada and the US. The line can’t be ignored. There’s an exchange rate, for one thing, as well as different tax rates. There are cultural differences, too, if slight, but present enough that in some cases, pro players eschew Canadian teams in favour of American ones (it’s rarely the other way around). The border is always there. Still, on any given game day, it could be ignored. It could just be about the sport. If it weren’t for the anthems.

To be clear, they don’t always play both anthems, except in places like Buffalo, where hockey fans listen to O Canada even when the city’s NHL team, the Sabres, are facing another American team. Generally, it’s only if a US team are facing a Canadian team that they play both anthems. And you have to stand there and listen. And you are meant to reflect, not on the team you’ve come to watch, but on that other one, Canada and the United States. That’s where the trouble starts.

Topics

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