What Toronto Can Learn from Morocco

In the realm of 'gracefully accepting defeat', members of government have demanded a parliamentary inquiry into Morocco's less than stellar performance at the 25th African Nations Cup held in Egypt - the final game is this evening and, guess what? - Morocco isn't in it. In fact, their best showing was a tie and even that little gem was a 0-0 showing. The press has called the team's performance "scandalous" - a word I would use to decry various government debacles & wrongdoings but perhaps there are none here. Can't waste a good word after all.

Now, I hail from a country which excels in parliamentary inquiries; since 1867 (the year of Canada's confederation), we have had a mind-numbing number of Royal Commissions, Task Forces, and Commission Inquiries, on everything from the Future of Health Care (I think they're for it) to the Task Force on TransFat (I think they're against it). Some of our commissions have outraged us (see the ongoing inquiry into the Moher Arar case, the Canadian who was "repatriated" to Syria by the US and brutually tortured); others have passed by without notice. Canadians like to navel-gaze a bit when pondering lofty thoughts such as "What is a Canadian" and "How are We Distinct from Americans?". Personally, I think that our propensity to call commissions/task forces/inquiries at the drop of a hat should be tacked up there with our other culture-defining criteria : politeness, the letter "zed", and a fondness for tree sap.

In spite of this national proclivity to peer very very closely at things at the onerous expense of Canadian taxpayers, I don't recall an inquiry into the loss of a sporting team - doping yes, but losing, no. Perhaps the city of Toronto might like to request an inquiry into the seemingly inexhaustive consecutive losses of its beloved Maple Leafs; in truth, they have not won a Stanley Cup since 1967. Bit of a dry spell. eh? My own dear husband, whom I magnanimously forgive for cheering for the said Leafs (not Leaves), was not even conceived when they won their last hockey championship. In fact, if I were Queen of the Universe, he would leave the Dark Side and start rooting for the Montreal Canadiens, the "winning-est" hockey team in history and a team, I might add, who knows how to pluralise nouns correctly.

So Toronto - look at your sporting brothers across the Atlantic and follow suit: launch a commission and find that scapegoat! Morocco may not be in this evening's final but they can find solace by fingerpointing!

In the meantime, I am pleased to announce that Monteal beat Buffalo last night in overtime. Go Habs Go!