Les Glorieux were on fire tonight. The fans were pumped. By mid-period, people were already going hoarse form the cheering. They killed a 2 minute 5 on 3 and took it down the length of the ice and scored. Carey was a wall, a reinforced concrete wall.
And then...
The Prime Minister of our beloved country, Stephen Harper, appeared on the giant screen.
Instantly, the raucus crowd turned their deafening cheers to deadening boos like someone had flicked a switch. You could not hear a single word he said from the moment his face showed itself. Loud and sustained for the whole 60-90 seconds of his English message and then his French message and his obligatory nerdy thumbs up.
This seemed to me a very surprisingly angry booing. I was really taken aback. The anger was quite palpable. I've never been a part of something like that. I don't think your ordinary Montrealer likes our Prime Minister all that much.
Booing confirmed here.
15 comments:
WOW! Pleased to hear it!
I don't like Harper either, but I'm NOT pleased to hear this. I mean come on, they didn't like Chretien, Trudeau and now Harper. If it was only Harper I'd probably like it.
Martin was booed at a Grey Cup game too (out West)
Montrealers' have always been trend setters, and they know a 'bad apple' when they see one.
Very interesting. Took them long enough. I went to several sports pages and I couldn't find any mention that Harper was booed. Even though the Globe did mention that Cherry was.
Why does the Globe hate Grapes?
As Sandi points out this is nothing new. In the early 80s I attended a Chinese circus at the old Ottawa Civic Center. As the house lights went down the MC announced that special guests were among us. Three spotlights trained on the center area between the lower and upper bowls to reveal Pierre Trudeau and his three sons. As our PM and his boys were introduced a deafening hail of boos rained down. I was about 17 at the time and not very political, but I remember being embarrassed that people would treat someone so disrepectfully when they were out with their family. It was classless and Harper being booed in Montreal falls into the same category, but the partisan in me loves the fact Harper got his comeuppance.
The Canadian Press is now mentioning the incident. The other MSM outlets seem to be ignoring it although millions heard it live on television last night.
TSN has noted the booing of Harper as has the Canadiens, NHL.com game recap page
Thanks. I added the AP link
I wish I could have been there, I'd have boo'ed up a lung while pumping both middle fingers furiously up and down, my face twisted with rage...
Good times. Good times.
I wish I could have been there, I'd have boo'ed up a lung while pumping both middle fingers furiously up and down, my face twisted with rage...
When are you not doing that?
When are you not doing that?
He would have to turn them around to type, at least.
...pumping both middle fingers furiously up and down, my face twisted with rage...
That is Ti-Guy typing.
Thanks for putting this up.
It really was quite remarkable. For Don Cherry a few people booed but almost as many cheered and more people just sat. But for Harper it was like a switch was flicked because it went from everyone cheering to absolutely everyone booing and booing loudly in an instant.
Politicians always get booed at sports events. No sports fan likes a politician taking up their time trying to score some political points and pretending to be an ordinary sports fan. Especially when it is so fake.
But this was a lot more than that. This was like a politician nearing the end of their reign after having burned all the bridges of retreat.
Montrealers were just plain done with him.
Montrealers have always been classy like that.
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