A Guest Post by Canadian TAM Flaggman
To quote Tammy Bruce from a couple of weeks ago, “Canada’s looking pretty good right now.” We elected our Conservative party to a majority government back on May 2, led by a principled conservative, Stephen Harper, who consistently makes us proud on the world stage. We support Israel; we’re getting tax cuts; we’re beginning to battle the public sector unions; and we even have the good sense to keep Bill Ayers from polluting our air with his presence.
Contrary to the media reports we’ve seen out of Vancouver, we do not have a hockey-violence problem. Turning the excitement of a Stanley Cup Game 7 into kristallnacht-on-the-Pacific is no hockey fan’s idea of a good time. But using the cover of 100,000 honest, excited hockey fans as an excuse to roll cars, loot stores, and torch police cruisers means something else: Vancouver has a nihilist problem. Take a look at the pictures in this incredible (and disturbing) photo gallery from the National Post, and you’ll see who was doing the damage: bored, Godless, drugged-up, overwhelmingly white-middle-class 20-something hipsters who care about nothing more than the rush of cheap thrills to feed their own narcissism. Not content to just destroy their own city; they’re self-obsessed enough to brag about it on Facebook the next day!
Canada is not a nihilist country, but Vancouver has a nihilist problem. It’s our Portland, Oregon, only bigger – a magnet for the most extreme elements of the left, who take advantage of a glorious climate, boundless natural beauty, generous social programs, and a critical mass of fellow travellers, to constantly attack all that is decent and good. The Godless culture has spread its tentacles throughout Canadian society over our 40-year socialist experiment, but nowhere has its supposed virtues taken root more deeply in a concentrated way, than in Vancouver. So, please don’t judge Canada or our national sport by Wednesday night’s despicable events. Real hockey fans like to keep their violence contained in the arena, with a strict set of rules that is enforced firmly with equal justice. Vancouver’s nihilist community is a symptom of the leftist disease that is completely anathema to the ethos of hockey; thankfully, that disease is becoming more and more isolated in the increasingly conservative national culture of the Great White North.
Neil Flagg is an independent business owner in Toronto who blogs occasionally at Flaggman’s Canada, and tweets regularly @neilflagg.
Related Coverage:
WSJ: Vancouver Tallies Damage After Hockey-Fan Rioting
Chicago Tribune: Vancouver ‘shocked and embarrassed’
I agree, Flagg. Having visited Vancouver before (a gorgeous city!), it gave me the impression I was in San Francisco. It’s a shame.
Thanks for the insight, Flagg. Very good post!
Soooooooo. Is anybody going to “suggest” that the Cannucks be suspended for the next season, due to the organization’s inadequate security? Just askin’.
Thanks for the insight, Flaggman. Hasn’t there been a similar outbreak of violence in Montreal in the past when the Habs lost? Same issue?
Anyway, things were so tight in Boston on Wednesday night, you’d think there was a snow emergency in effect.
Montreal had the only true hockey riot, the “Richard Riot” of 1955, when the Canadiens’ superstar player Maurice Richard was suspended in the middle of the Stanley Cup Finals in what was seen as an act of anti-Francophone bias. They have had smaller-scale opportunistic rioting like this in the years since as well, it’s true. Nothing on the scale of what Vancouver just experienced, though. Even LA would have trouble matching this.
Excellent post Flaggman. Thank you for setting the record straight.
Great post Flaggman! The “love among the ruins” pic, along with the ones of people smiling and posing really were awful. Like the last days of Rome or something. I liked that you said it’s like a version of Portland, Oregon-it reminded me of that as well.
I just read Ann Coulter’s comment at the Daily Caller this morning, it’s hilariously worth repeating of course:
“The sad thing is Canadians hurt in the rioting will have to wait six months for an MRI.”
The foolish anarchists are putting their idiotic acts of irrational and counter-productive violence and mayhem on full display for the world to see. Gross stupidity, mindless viciousness, and showing no compassion for others — just self-centered “kicks” for the zombies there. This truly and sadly sullies the image of Vancouver.
I’ll bet the majority of those violent idiots believe they are for “peace”.
They all need a flash-grenade in the crotch!
Thought Experiment: If this is how Vancouver ‘celebrates’ a LOSS, what if the Canucks had WON?
Nice article Flaggman.
Nice post Flaggman. Kind of confirmed what I thought about Vancouver being a lefty haven. Looked pretty hairy on tv.