We are not all of Canada’s team but we don’t care.

Prior to the beginning of the West finals between the Vancouver Canucks and the San Jose Sharks, there were suggestions by certain members of the media that, in fact, the Sharks were the ones that Canada should cheer for. That’s right, a team located in Southern California is the one that represents the true north strong and free as they are captained by Joe Thornton and have Dany Heatley, Dan Boyle and Patrick Marleau while the Canucks lone Team Canada representative is goaltender Roberto Luongo. Normally I wouldn’t care what anyone says but this one was just too absurd.

The Canucks were deemed too Swedish, too American and strangely, too German despite The Hoff being the only player from good ol’ Deutschland. I can see why since our captain and his near duplicate are Swedish twins. Our best player so far during this playoff run is an American who has expressed his hatred for Team Canada in the past. There are more international players on our vaunted defensive corp than Canadian ones. It certainly seems that the Canucks aren’t very Canadian at all. But really…what makes us Canadian, after all? As I’m of Chinese descent, it certainly isn’t race. I speak other languages other than English so it can’t possibly be that either.

If you ask anyone around the world, you’d probably hear that they think Canadians are “nice”. Well, that makes our boys Canadian after all regardless of where they’re from. Ever met any of the Canucks? They’re as nice a guys as you’ll ever find. I’ve never been turned down for an autograph or photo opportunity (mostly because I don’t ask if they’re busy or occupied). They’re friendly guys that take a lot of pride in their work not only on the ice but off of it. I don’t think I have to mention all the great charity and philanthropy contributions the Canucks have made over the years. The organization is built not only to win games but to improve our city. No matter what people think Luongo’s wife thinks, I’m sure they would not be as involved as they are if they didn’t love Vancouver. Work ethic? Another Canadian value our boys exude. Maybe not on every night but none of us can say we don’t have an off-night sometimes. Who are the hardest working members of our team? If you answered anyone but Kesler, you’re probably wrong.

You know what the least Canadian part about all this? Suggesting that the Canucks aren’t Canadian enough simply because they’re from somewhere else. Telling someone that they can’t be part of us because of their race, ethnicity or background. The Canucks are as Canadian as any of us… maybe not by citizenship but certainly by attitude.

Kesler even says “Eh.”. Try to argue with that one!

So then, other parts of Canada, if you want to hop aboard and cheer for the Canucks, we’d be happy to have you. I can understand why. We have the big chocolate cake and there’s a big chocolate cake shortage everywhere else in Canada right now so all the chocoholics have to go somewhere for their fix. Even if it’s only til July and you’ll go back to cheering for the Leafs or whatever afterwards, welcome aboard! I’ll even give you a cheat sheet so you can learn all the players’ names if you’re from out East.

If not, and I can’t stress this enough: We. Don’t. Care. Personally, I would prefer if we weren’t Canada’s team because, to be honest, other parts of Canada, you don’t deserve us.

That’s right, I said it.

As Canucks fans, we have suffered. We have suffered through 40 years of losing. Not losing in the regular season, but since we’ve never won it all, I’ll just call it losing. We’ve come close… but we’ve never won. We’ve suffered through parts of history where our team just wasn’t very good. We’ve suffered the curse of Mark Messier. We’ve even suffered through single game ticket prices that might get us season tickets behind the bench in Atlanta, Phoenix or Florida. Us. Not you. We’re happy to share with you, Canada but don’t presume that we need or even want you. You’ve never cared about us and we didn’t really mind.

I get where these opinions are coming from, but what they don’t take into account is that Canucks fans know what matters… that our team’s still playing hockey rather than golfing so what the rest of the country thinks of us is moo.

Like a cow’s opinion.