TOI Correspondent from Washington: Partisan cricket fans in India and Pakistan, please stand back for the pathology of American and Canadian fans in ice hockey.
Benign neighbors not too long ago, ties between the two brotherly nations has touched a nadir lately, with acrimony going to the brink in the hockey rink.
Fans have booed each others’ national anthems played before the game, brawls have broken out between players in the arena, and even leaders of the two countries, already sparring over tariffs, have trolled and taunted each other on social media.
On Thursday, Canada won the FourNations trophy defeating the US 3-2 in extra-time in Boston, and avenging a group stage defeat in Toronto that had American fans gloating.
Cue for Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to clap back on social media.
“You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game,” he posted on X, referring to Trump’s invitation — or threat — to make Canada the 51st US state. Trump has also referred to the Canadian PM as “Governor Trudeau.”
Trudeau’s riposte followed three days of taunts from Americans after their group stage win in a game that had three brawls between players in the first nine seconds.
Tension — even greater than of the kind that characterizes India-Pakistan cricket games — ran high ahead of Thursday night’s face-off. A Canadian fan at the Boston game help up a placard that read “Welcome to the USA, Canada’s 11th province.”
Trump called the US team to which them luck, saying, “You really are a skilled group of people….We love you guys. We’ll be watching tonight. Bring it home.”
Even the White House joined in the trolling, with Trump’s spokesperson Karoline Leavitt saying, “We look forward to the US beating our soon-to-be 51st state, Canada.”
They couldn’t. USA led 2-1 going into the final minutes, Canada equalized, and them nipped out a 3-2 win in sudden death extra-time, sending American fans into a spiteful rage already aggravated by Canadian singer Chantal Kreviazuk changing the lyric of the Canadian national anthem in a rebuke to Trump’s expansionism.
She later said she did it “because I believe in democracy, and a sovereign nation should not have to be defending itself against tyranny and fascism.”
Trump’s MAGA fans were unrepentant in their trolling. “500% tariffs, and we’re going to take your land by force,” read one post.