Canadian Crossing

Calgary voters say no to 2026 Winter Olympics

Calgary voters had their chances to register their thoughts on their city hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games. They said "no" with 56.4% of the vote, according to unofficial vote totals for the non-binding plebiscite.

The plebiscite attracted 304,774 ballots from 767,734 eligible voters for a 40% turnout.

If the vote had gone to the "yes" side, Calgary's chances of getting the 2026 Winter Olympics would have been very good. The other bids were from Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy and Stockholm, Sweden. After 3 straight Winter Olympics in Asia (the 2022 Winter Olympics will be in Beijing, China) or near-Asia (the debate over whether Sochi, Russia is in Europe or Asia), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would have welcomed a North American Olympics.

The voters had concerns about the current economy, potential cost overruns, money going away from projects that would help everyday activities, and a bit of confusion over what was and wasn't in the Olympics bid.

The Olympics bid didn't include a new arena or stadium but that is more about the nuances of pleasing the IOC, which discourages new buildings as part of the bidding process. The Calgary bid called for ski jumping to be held in Whistler. This was a money-saving point and that the Calgary’s ski jumps aren't up to IOC standards.

The Yes, Calgary side of the debate came out with a FAQ to try to clear confusion over what is covered and not covered in the Olympics bid.

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For many, the 2026 Winter Olympics bid was a motivation for Calgary to build a new arena and stadium that would primarily be used by the NHL Flames and CFL Stampeders. McMahon Stadium has been in use since 1960 and the Scotiabank Saddledome has been in use since 1983.

Those pushing for a new arena will find themselves in the same company as Gary Bettman, no matter how icky that must be. Bettman has been a lot less subtle than most on the topic, noting that every other NHL team is in a new arena or heavily remodeled (Madison Square Garden).

CalgaryNEXT was the only major proposal that included a replacement for McMahon Stadium. The proposal was an arena and stadium side-by-side in the West Village along the Bow River. The CalgaryNEXT proposal didn't get much consideration.

By contrast, the Saddledome is in Victoria Park just north of the Calgary Stampede grounds. McMahon Stadium is in the northwest part of the city. Both facilities have easy access to the C-Train.

With a no vote, the money that could have been used on the 2026 Winter Olympics could go to a new arena and stadium that would primarily be used by the NHL Flames and CFL Stampeders.

CanadianCrossing.com Olympics coverage

Calgary voters who voted "no" should know the arenas discussion will only start up once again. If the vote had been "yes" and the IOC had picked Calgary for 2026, there would have been discussion about new facilities.

For the CFL, new stadiums in Winnipeg and Regina serve as reminders for what Calgary could have for the Stampeders. The NHL with new arenas in Detroit and Edmonton offer inspiration for what Calgary could have for the Flames.

The Saddledome, first named the Olympic Saddledome, was built for the NHL Flames, who moved from Atlanta to Calgary in 1980. The Flames played from 1980-1983 at the Stampede Corral, a facility with a capacity well under 10,000. The Saddledome was built as part of the bid for the 1988 Winter Olympics.

The idea of Calgary hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics was that the 1988 Winter Olympics went so well. Hosting again would have cemented the idea of Calgary being an Olympics city. On the strength of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the 2026 Winter Olympics would have been a great showcase for western Canada around the world.

Calgary will have to visit the idea of updated arenas and stadiums. The Winter Olympics could have justified the building of new infrastructure, including a transit line from the Calgary airport to downtown, such as the one in Vancouver.

photo credit: Ed Middleton/CBC

2018 Olympics wrapup: Canada sets new record for Winter Olympics medals

Favourite Olympic moment so far: Canadian curler Rachel Homan's husband double-fisting his third and fourth beers while watching his wife compete against Japan. It's 9am in Korea. Not all heroes wear capes. #PyeongChang2018 pic.twitter.com/jzrVsu06Vi

— Ben Johnson (@Ben_T_Johnson) February 19, 2018

The Olympics have always some lighter moments but thanks to social media, capturing those moments is easier and more fun.

Shawn Germain, husband of Canadian women's curling skip Rachel Homan, got some unexpected publicity. And the match against Japan was a Canadian win.

#CAN #PyeongChang2018 pic.twitter.com/QWS0qdsimJ

— Andy (@_rallycap) February 22, 2018

Most Americans may not get the significance of Heritage Moments, but they are a thing in Canada. Scott Moir did what most Canadians were doing during the women's hockey gold medal game: yelling at the referees who went out of their way not to call penalties on the U.S. squad.

The officiating was rather awful but the idea that Canada kept getting called for good or bad penalties while the U.S. went past the halfway mark in regulation without a single penalty.

Moir was also seen passing out beers during the game so fans didn't have to wait in line. The NBCSN coverage of the game missed out on great moments in the crowd, whether that be for the United States or Canada.

The fun of the Olympics is watching their fellow country members cheering in another sport that isn't their own. Moir, like his skating on the ice, elevated that experience.

2018 Olympics notebook: No medals for men's curling, women's curling

2018 Olympics notebook: Canada women's hockey loses gold medal game in shootout

2018 Olympics notebook: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir set new short dance world record

2018 Olympics notebook: Team gold medal win in Figure Skating

Kim Boutin was named the flagbearer for the Closing Ceremonies. A silver medal and 2 bronze medals made Boutin a fairly easy pick.

Virtue and Moir did a beautiful job in the gala skate with a tribute to Gord Downie, skating to the Tragically Hip's Long Time Running.

2018 Winter Olympics PyeongChang preview

CanadianCrossing.com Olympics coverage

Canada set a new record for most medals in a Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea at 29. The record was set at Vancouver with 26. Canada has performed well of late with 25 in Sochi in 2014 and 24 in Turin in 2006.

Canada finished 3rd overall behind Norway and Germany. The medal count was 11 gold, 8 silver, and 10 bronze.

Vancouver still has the most gold medals at any Olympics with 14. If the pattern had held in 2018 with the gold medals in hockey and curling, that mark would have been broken.

The overall mark for Canada in the Olympics is 44 in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The total was higher due to the absence of the Soviet Union.

CBC provided a comprehensive analysis of the performance of Canadian athletes.

Twitter captures: @Ben_T_Johnson; @_rallycap

2018 Olympics notebook: No medals for men's curling, women's curling

Canada jumped into 2nd place overall in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea medal count with 29 medals: 11 gold, 8 silver, and 10 bronze.

Kim Boutin has 3 of the 29 medals for Canada in the 2018 Winter Olympics. The newest medal is silver to go with 2 bronze medals. Boutin had a time of 1:29.956, just .178 behind Suzanne Schulting (Netherlands) in the Short Track Ladies' 1000m race.

Samuel Girard added a bronze to his earlier gold medal. Girard along with Charles Hamelin, Charle Cournoyer, and Pascal Dion had a time of 6:32.282, just .247 behind China for Silver in the Short Track Men's 5000m relay.

Kaetlyn Osmond added an individual bronze medal to her earlier team gold medal in Women's Figure Skating with a 231.02 overall score with a 152.15 in the free skate and 78.87 in the short program.

The Ladies Ski Cross gave Canada a pair of medals as Kelsey Serwa (left) won gold and Brittany Phelan (right) took silver.

Sébastien Toutant won the first gold medal ever in big air with a score of 174.25.

Canada took the bronze medal in men's hockey with a wild 6-4 win over the Czech Republic. Andrew Ebbett and Chris Kelly each had 2 goals in the bronze medal game.

At 29 medals, Canada now has the most medals ever from the Winter Olympics. The previous mark was 26 in Vancouver in 2010.

2018 Olympics notebook: Canada women's hockey loses gold medal game in shootout

2018 Olympics notebook: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir set new short dance world record

2018 Olympics notebook: Team gold medal win in Figure Skating

2018 Winter Olympics PyeongChang preview

CanadianCrossing.com Olympics coverage

Germany has the Olympics story in men’s hockey. Canada did little to change that dynamic with bad penalties and a puzzling face-off violation in the 1st period. Canada played better in the 3rd period but the effort wasn’t enough as Germany got its first regulation win in the Olympics tournament with a 4-3 win.

The Gilbert Brule hit on German forward David Wolf in the 2nd period was horrible as a hit and momentum maker for the Germans.

If Ben Scrivens had been healthy, Canada could have been in the gold medal game. Not to take anything away from Kevin Poulin but Germany proved to be far tougher than Finland.

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Keep saying to yourselves that Canada won gold in curling in 2018. Except that the only gold, the only medal in curling came in mixed doubles curling.

The Canadian women's team finished 4-5 not even making the medal round.

The Canadian men’s team did make the medal round. Kevin Koe and his Calgary-based squad lost 5-3 to the Americans so bronze was the only hope. Switzerland dashed that hope with a 7-5 win over Canada to take the bronze medal.

Canada had not failed to medal in curling since the return of the sport to the Olympics in 1998. The men won silver in 1998 and 2002 and had a 3-Olympics streak of gold in 2006, 2010, and 2014. The women won gold in 1998, followed by bronze in 2002 and 2006. The colour changed to silver in 2010 and gold in 2014.

2018 was a very different story.

24 straight wins in Olympic competition. Marie-Philip Poulin scoring the game-winning goal in 2 straight Olympics gold medal games.

4 gold medals in a row. Salt Lake City. Torino. Vancouver. Sochi.

The Canada women's hockey team might find a silver medal a bitter taste. But this is a squad that should be highly proud of their efforts.

Jocelyne Larocque got some grief on social media for not wearing her silver medal, choosing instead to hold her medal by her side.

"I want to apologize," Larocque said in a statement. "In the moment, I was disappointed with the outcome of the game, and my emotions got the better of me. I meant no disrespect. It has been an honor to represent my country and win a medal for Canada."

In the 2018 World Juniors, Swedish captain Lias Andersson threw his silver medal into the crowd. Larocque made a statement without making an embarrassment.

The 2018 gold medal game was ugly in so many ways. They can't all be like the majesty of the 2014 comeback. Let the United States savour this one. See them back in 2022.

photos credit: CBC Sports

2018 Olympics notebook: Canada women's hockey loses gold medal game in shootout

The Canadian women's hockey team had a bad change in the 3rd period to allow the tying goal. The team struggled to put together any decent offence setup in the 3rd period and overtime. And while the shootout might have been Canada's best hope, their effort wasn't enough.

For the first time since 1998, Canada wins silver in women's hockey, not gold. The U.S. win was 3-2 in the shootout.

That brings the Canada medal count to 22 medals: 9 gold, 6 silver, and 7 bronze.

Cassie Sharpe won gold in the Freestyle Skiing Ladies' Halfpipe with a best score of 95.80. Brady Leman took gold in the Freestyle Skiing Men's Ski Cross.

Kaillie Humphries and Phylicia George won bronze in the Women's Bobsleigh with a time of 3:22.89. The difference between 1st and 4th place was .52 seconds.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir gave their fans and Olympic watchers something to behold in the free skate portion of the ice dance as the Canadian duo won the gold medal with an overall score of 206.07.

The 122.40 point total in the free skate set to Moulin Rouge topped their previous best of 118.33 set at December's Grand Prix final.

Virtue and Moir needed to do as well as they did because the French duo of Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron scored 123.35 in the free skate to Moonlight Sonata.

Virtue and Moir scored 83.67 in the short dance. Papadakis and Cizeron scored 81.93 in the short dance, which was affected by Papadakis experiencing a wardrobe malfunction. The overall French score of 205.28 temporarily set a world record.

Virtue and Moir are now the most decorated Olympic figure skaters. They took gold in this category in 2010 in Vancouver and now in 2018. They have 3 gold medals in total, with the team gold medal in figure skating earlier in this Olympics. The duo won silver medals in the ice dance and team event in 2014 in Sochi.

Sweden's Gillis Grafstrom, Soviet skater Irina Rodnina, and Norway's Sonja Henie each won 3 gold medals.

Virtue and Moir will pay tribute to Gord Downie, skating to the Tragically Hip's Long Time Running at the gala skate airing in North America on Saturday night at 7:30 pm Eastern.

2018 Olympics notebook: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir set new short dance world record

2018 Olympics notebook: Team gold medal win in Figure Skating

2018 Winter Olympics PyeongChang preview

CanadianCrossing.com Olympics coverage

Defenseman Maxim Noreau fired an intense shot off a clean face-off for Canada's lone goal against Finland in the quarterfinals in men's hockey. Ben Scrivens and later Kevin Poulin combined for the shutout in the 1-0 win over Finland.

Germany will be the semifinal opponent after knocking off #1 seed Sweden 4-3 in overtime. The Germans were up 2-0 and 3-1 before the Swedes tied the game forcing the extra period. Germany needed 90 seconds of extra time for the 4-3 winner.

Finland had advanced to the quarterfinals getting past South Korea with a 5-2 win.

The Olympic Athletes from Russia and Czech Republic are in the other semifinal. The Czechs only scored 1 goal in the shootout with the United States in the quarterfinals, but 1 was enough.

Ben Scrivens is the top Canadian goalie but suffered an injury as Veli-Matti Savinainen of Finland was propelled into the crease by Canadian Eric O'Dell. Scrivens tried to stay in the game but gave way to Poulin at 4:17 of the 2nd period. Scrivens had 6 saves while Poulin had 15 saves. Poulin did shutout South Korea in his only Olympics start.

Germany has won 3 straight games in extra time since going 0-2 to start the preliminary round. The Canada-Germany game will be Friday morning in North American at 7 am Eastern.

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The 2018 Winter Olympics Canada women's curling team became the first Canadian curling team to not reach the semifinals. The comeback after the 0-3 start looked strong, but the women's team needed to win the last 2 matches and hope for help. Rachel Homan and her squad were up 5-4 after the 9th end. But Great Britain picked off 2 in the 10th end for the 6-5 win.

The Canadian women's team finished 4-5.

In men's curling, Canada faces the United States in a semifinal match this morning. Switzerland and Sweden play in the other semifinal. Canada will play for gold with a win.

photo credit: CBC Sports

2018 Olympics notebook: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir set new short dance world record

How about this?

When 🇨🇦Canada won two-man bobsled gold in 1998 it was a tie.

20 years later, 🇨🇦wins gold in a tie in two-man bobsled again. @CBCAlerts @CBCOlympics pic.twitter.com/o4CjntTOwm

— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) February 19, 2018

Canada is in a comfortable spot in the overall 2018 Winter Olympics medal standings sitting in 3rd place with 17 medals: 6 gold, 5 silver, and 6 bronze.

Ted-Jan Bloemen won his second medal in the Olympics at PyeongChang, South Korea with an Olympic record 12:39.77 time in the Men's 10000 Speed Skating. Bloemen won silver earlier in the Men's 5000 Metres in Speed Skating.

Kim Boutin won her second bronze of the Olympics with a 1:24.650 time in Women's Short Track 1000 metres skating. Boutin also won bronze in the Women's Short Track 500-metre event with a time of 43.881 seconds.

Canada won the silver medal team relay luge with a time of 2:24.872. The team lost gold to Germany. Alex Gough, Sam Edney, Tristan Walker, and Justin Snith were the team. This is the second medal for Gough, winning bronze in Women's Luge with a score of 46.574.

Samuel Girard won the gold medal in Men's 1000 Metres Short Track skating with a time of 1:24.650.

Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford won bronze in the Pairs Free Skate with a 230.15 score.

Alex Beaulieu-Marchand took the bronze medal in Men's Ski Slopestyle with a 92.40 score.

The newest gold medal winners this morning were pilot Justin Kripps and brakeman Alexander Kopacz in the Bobsleigh. Germany's Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis tied the mark of 3:16.86 for the gold.

Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir haven't won a new medal but broke their own world record in the short dance with a score of 83.67 points. The presentation was to the music of Sympathy For The Devil by The Rolling Stones, an acoustic version of Hotel California by The Eagles, and Oye Como Va by Santana.

This was the same category where France's Gabriella Papadakis had a wardrobe malfunction where her left breast was exposed on international television. CBC did air the footage live in Canada.

The free dance version runs Monday night in North America.

2018 Olympics notebook: Team gold medal win in Figure Skating

2018 Winter Olympics PyeongChang preview

CanadianCrossing.com Olympics coverage

Canada will play in its 6th straight gold medal game in women's hockey. Canada and the United States handed 5-0 defeats to Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) and Finland, respectively.

Jennifer Wakefield scored 2 goals in the semifinal game. Marie-Philip Poulin, Emily Clark, and Rebecca Johnston. 3 of Canada's 5 goals came in the 3rd period. Shannon Szabados was in goal in the semifinal game for Canada, going 14/14 against OAR.

Both play-in games were upsets. Switzerland dominated Group B yet lost 6-2 to OAR, a team outscored 15-1 in the preliminary round. Sweden's only loss in the opening round was to Switzerland but lost to Finland 7-2. Both Canada and the United States defeated Finland and OAR in the opening round in Group A.

If Switzerland had won, Canada would have played the higher seed despite winning Group A.

The gold medal game will be a rematch featured in 1998, 2002, 2010, and 2014. In the Canada-U.S. preliminary game, Meghan Agosta took a blind pass from Natalie Spooner on a power play and scored the first goal for Canada against the United States. Sarah Nurse drove down on the left side and placed a perfectly played shot above U.S. goalie Maddie Rooney's right shoulder to give Canada a 2-0 lead.

Here is hoping that Canada doesn't get a call against the team such as losing a potential 3rd goal by Haley Irwin where the referees ruled that she kicked the puck into the net. Irwin did turn her skate but there was no kicking motion.

Canada played all 3 goalies in the 3 preliminary games.

• Ann-Renée Desbiens 18/18 against OAR
• Shannon Szabados 22/23 against Finland
• Geneviève Lacasse 44/45 against U.S.

Sarah Nurse of Canada and Amanda Kessel have NHL family connections. Nurse's cousin is Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse. Kessel's brother is Pittsburgh's Phil Kessel, formerly of Toronto.

You may have noticed Brigette Lacquette on defence for Team Canada. Lacquette is the first indigenous woman ever on Canada's Olympic women's hockey team.

The CBC Olympics app has a nice segment on getting to know the women's hockey team in case you haven't tuned in until now.

The gold medal game will be Wednesday night in North America 11:10 pm Eastern/8:10 pm Pacific on CBC in Canada and NBCSN in the United States.

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Canada already won gold at mixed doubles curling but the women's curling team got off to a horrible start. Being down 0-3 was bad enough, but the team also suffered the karma of a burned rock.

Denmark has a rock in the 5th end when one of their sweeper's broom hit the top of the rock. This made the rock a burned rock. In curling, the other team can choose to remove the rock. Curling etiquette would lean toward leaving the rock. Canadian skip Rachel Homan had the rock taken out of play.

Canada ended up losing 9-8 as the Danes won the final point when in Homan's last throw, her stone clipped a guard in front of the house.

The loss brought them to 0-3. A win over the United States produced the team's first win in the 2018 Olympics. Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock called the women's curling team to offer encouragement after the win over the Americans. Babcock knows a few things about the Olympics having won gold medals in men's hockey in 2010 and 2014.

Homan scored a triple in the ninth end, and then stole a single in the tenth end to beat Switzerland 10-8. With the win, Homan's rink improves to 2-3.

The Canada women's curling team is now 3-3. The men's Olympic team got off to a great start but now rests at 4-3 with a 3-match losing streak. The latest loss was to the United States, the first Canada has ever lost to the Americans in Olympics curling.

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Canada earned a bye into the men's hockey quarterfinals with a little help from Sweden. Canada finished the preliminary round with a shutout win over the host team South Korea and the Sweden-Finland game ended in regulation.

Canada is the #4 seed and gets to rest before the quarterfinals. The team will play either Finland (#5) or South Korea (#12) in the quarterfinals. If the top quarterfinal seeds advance, Canada would draw Sweden in the semifinals.

Canada started the tournament by defeating Switzerland 5-1, then suffered a 3-2 shootout loss to the Czech Republic, and finally beat the host team South Korea 4-0. The team finished with seven points in Group A.

If Sweden-Finland had gone to OT, the loser of that game would also have 7 points. Since the first tiebreaker (head-to-head) was not relevant, the second tiebreaker was goal differential. Canada finished with a plus-7 mark, compared to Finland's plus-5 and Sweden's plus-9.

Twitter capture: @Devin_Heroux

2018 Olympics notebook: Team gold medal win in Figure Skating

BREAKING - GOLD

Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris defeat Switzerland to capture first-ever Mixed Doubles Olympic curling gold medal.

HISTORY:

They also become the first two Canadians to win gold in curling at the Olympics twice. #cbccurl pic.twitter.com/w1FpBDYITv

— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) February 13, 2018

Canada is off to a rather good start at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. The country ranks 2nd with 10 medals and 3 gold medals, 4 silver, and 3 bronze.

The big gold came in the team category on figure skating: Patrick Chan; Gabrielle Daleman, Meagan Duhamel, Scott Moir, Kaetlyn Osmond, Eric Radford, and Tessa Virtue.

The Canadian performance was so dominant that Canada pretty much had the team win before Virtue and Moir took the ice for the final event.

Canada won gold with 73 points compared to the Olympic Athletes from Russia (66) and the United States (62).

Virtue and Moir have now won 4 Olympic medals, tying the top mark with Gillis Grafstrom (Sweden) and Yevgeny Plushenko (Russia).

Mikaël Kingsbury won gold in the Men's Moguls with a 86.63 score.

The latest gold went to Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris with the first-ever mixed doubles curling. Lawes and Morris defeated Switzerland 10-3. Lawes previously won gold in 2014 in Sochi as vice for Jennifer Jones. Morris won gold at Vancouver in 2010 playing third for Kevin Martin.

Justine Dufour-Lapointe added to her medal display case with a silver medal in the Women's Moguls. Dufour-Lapointe finished at 78.56, barely behind the gold medal winner Perrine Laffont (France) at 78.65.

Yes, the United States did take gold in the Men's Slopestyle in Snowboard. However, Canada took silver and bronze in the sport. Redmond Gerard set the mark at 87.16 but Max Parrot came in at 86.00 and Mark McMorris in at 85.20. McMorris story of being back on the podium after his tragic accident is the stuff Olympic stories are made of.

Laurie Blouin won a silver medal in the Women's Slopestyle in Snowboard with a 76.33 score.

Ted-Jan Bloemen narrowly won silver with a 6:11.616 time in the Men's 5000 Metres in Speed Skating. Bloemen's time was .002 ahead of the bronze medal winner and just over 2 seconds away from gold.

Kim Boutin won a bronze medal in the Women's Short Track 500-metre event with a time of 43.881 seconds. Boutin originally finished 4th but benefited as judges ruled that Minjeong Choi (South Korea) impeded Arianna Fontana (Italy) in a photo finish. Choi's disqualification allow Boutin to move up. Marianne St-Gelais was disqualified in an earlier heat in the same event.

Alex Gough won bronze in Women's Luge with a score of 46.574.

2018 Winter Olympics PyeongChang preview

CanadianCrossing.com Olympics coverage

The Canadian women's hockey team has been undefeated in preliminary competition. Canada plays the U.S. in women's hockey Wednesday night at 10:10 pm Eastern.

A powerful message meets all visitors to 🇨🇦Canada House.

“This is your house no matter who you are or where you come from”#PyeongChang2018 pic.twitter.com/rl38v4JAwL

— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) February 7, 2018

The first Pride House was in Vancouver in 2010 so the fact that Canada House is also serving as Pride House feels appropriate.

There are 13 LGBT athletes, up from 7 at Sochi. There was a need since organizers couldn't get funds for a centre at the Olympic Village.

Those numbers might seem small but they only reflect athletes who are out.

While this is nice that Canada gets the credit, the most important thing is that someone stepped up.

Twitter captures: @Devin_Heroux

2018 Winter Olympics PyeongChang preview

The ice dancing duo of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will be the flag bearers for the Canadian flag during the opening ceremony for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. The opening ceremony airs live starting at 5:30 am Eastern Friday morning on CBC. 

The CBC coverage starts tonight at 6:30 pm Eastern and 7 pm Eastern Thursday with Mixed Doubles Curling and Team Figure Skating. Live coverage runs from 7 pm Eastern to 1 pm Eastern starting on Friday.

Since the CBC has reacquired the Olympics coverage, TSN and Rogers Sportsnet carry some of the Olympics coverage. You can find the TSN schedule here.

To see who will handle which duties for the CBC, click here.

The men's hockey teams are filled with unknowns and relative unknowns since the NHL decided not to send players to the 2018 Winter Olympics. If you've picked the men over the women in this sport, don't make that mistake again. The Canadian women's team have proven to be the best in the world in the Olympics.

We know Chris Cuthbert and Ray Ferraro will help out on the men's hockey side. Mark Lee and Cassie Campbell-Pascall will work women's hockey. Gord Miller will actually work men's hockey for the NBC Universal group.

The new lyrics to O Canada are in place. Hopefully we will hear the new lyrics quite a few times in PyeongChang.

CanadianCrossing.com Olympics coverage

Here are some notable individual Canadian competitors:

• Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will be participating in their final Olympics in ice dancing. The duo won silver in 2014 and previously won a gold medal.
• Kaillie Humphries wants to win gold for the 3rd straight time as the bobsleigh pilot.
• Patrick Chan has won silver twice in figure skating.
• Justine Dufour-Lapointe and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe will be without their sister Maxime in 2018. The three sisters competed in moguls with Justine winning and Chloe silver at Sochi in 2014.
• Marianne St-Gelais has plenty of silver medals, 3 in fact, in short-track speed skating. This will be her third Olympic Games.
• Charles Hamelin has 3 gold medals in short-track speed skating, including 1,500 metres in 2014.
• Mark McMorris won bronze in slopestyle in Sochi. His comeback story after a horrible back country accident will be compelling.

For those watching on the U.S. side, NBC Universal and its many channels will carry the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang.

photo credit: Rogers Sportsnet

CBC proposes $400 million increase to go ad-free

The Conservative Party of Canada won't elect a party leader until May 27. So the Canadian news airwaves are filled with stories of how potential party leaders want to gut the CBC. Since there are many vying for one post, they have to sound more extreme than the next candidate.

Their "solutions" for the CBC fall into a pair of categories: don't accept advertising revenue and don't accept funding for taxpayers. The CBC now has a plan to deal with the former request.

The CBC argument is that increasing the funding from $34/person per year to $46/person would allow CBC television to go without advertising.

If that sounds like the BBC model, factor in that the proposal notes that the United Kingdom spends $114/person. The Canadian funding is 3rd worst among countries with a public broadcaster. And yes, the United States, along with New Zealand, are worse off than Canada.

So for less money than a single half chicken dinner at Swiss Chalet, but more money than a quarter chicken dinner at Swiss Chalet, Canadians can get an ad-free CBC. Even at $46/person, the CBC would be spending less than half of the UK allotment. Of course, the CBC does a lot more and covers more ground than the BBC.

What an ad-free CBC would look like

• Kids programming is already free of commercials. Promos and other programming run outside the shows
• News programming would have time for more news. The National would truly be 55 minutes before the weather break. CBC does run newscasts from the CBC News Network: assuming CBC News Network can still run ads, promos could run in commercial breaks. If $46/person gets CBC News Network to be free of ads, then even more time for news.
• Rick Mercer Report/This Hour Has 22 Minutes/Marketplace/The Fifth Estate would likely run promos in between the segments. Same would likely apply to sitcoms and dramas, especially if they might find a home south of the border.
• Documentaries can run with more content. CBC can run more arts programming and yes, Canadian films uncut.
• Hockey Night in Canada would run into issues not so much during the breaks, but the pregame and game coverage often has in-programming ads. The CBC already doesn't get money for those ads, so they might be an exception since the CBC doesn't get that money.
• Weekend sports coverage could be more extensive. If the CBC were to keep showing the Olympics, the ad-free coverage would be incredible but commercials could still run on cable coverage on TSN and Rogers Sportsnet.

Taking away part of the conservative argument

The conservative argument is that the media in Canada lacks a level playing field. "For Canadian democracy to thrive, we need to hear from the different voices in the press," Conservative Party leader candidate Kellie Leitch said in a statement. The Conservative MP argues that "so long as the CBC continues to distort the market by consuming advertising revenues and having its operations underwritten by the taxpayer, the market is uncompetitive."

The proposal from fellow Conservative Party leader candidate Maxime Bernier makes the CBC advertising-free and transitions toward a PBS/NPR type funding model.

Leitch claims in her argument that CBC is at an advantage over CTV, Global, and City TV, even though the revenues from the commercial outlets are gigantic compared to the CBC. She says we should hear from different voices in the press, but not the CBC. Bernier knows his proposal will destroy the impact of CBC's news gathering capabilities. The PBS/NPR model is about money but also influence. The financial concerns prevent them from doing a better job in bringing Americans the news.

Canada PM Stephen Harper says he prefers watching U.S. news

Understand too that the conservative argument about funding isn't really about money. They want the CBC to do fewer investigations into how government works, especially when the party is back in power. This was part of Stephen Harper's strategy of defunding CBC and his insistence that he favored American news over Canadian news. These people want to make Harper look like Justin Trudeau in comparison.

If there is no advertising revenue, the conservative argument is cut in half. Sure they will still whine about taxpayer funding but the overall argument is significantly weakened.

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What the 2015 Canadian federal election means to CBC and other arts funding

Helping CBC Part I: Show more Canadian content

Helping CBC Part II: Making money through cable channels

Helping CBC Part III: Filling programming holes

More money for Canadian private broadcasters

The idea of the CBC having an advantage over CTV, Global, and City TV is rather laughable since the private broadcasters can charge ads for American programming and have the power to simsub Canadian ads over that programming. The private networks are able to count newscasts as Canadian programming. The CRTC is making things easier for private broadcasters to not carry Canadian content.

CRTC reducing requirements to carry Canadian content

Shifting the ad revenue the CBC draws onto public broadcasters would be a subsidy to the private broadcasters. The calculation of $158 million stems from the policy and economic consulting firm Nordicity. So Canadian taxpayers would pay more for the CBC but the end result would be Canadian taxpayers subsidizing private broadcasting companies. Canadians should get more actual Canadian content for that money.

The drawback for the private broadcasters, on paper, is that Canadians would watch more CBC programming if they didn't have to watch commercials. Given Canadians' love for things American, we'll see if that scenario even comes close to happening.

Canadian arts programming could flourish

CBC programming decisions could stem based on artistic merit. Ballet, plays, film, dance: the possibilities are truly wonderful to imagine. 

Getting ready for tonight's Tragically Hip final concert

The Tragically Hip final concert could be more the norm rather than the exception.

The network can experiment with shows that need to build an audience. A late-night talk show. Short films in a 30-minute or 60-minute block. Music concerts from up and coming artists.

Besides the obvious artistic advances, Canadians might feel like the CBC is truly serving Canadian interests. British miniseries instead of Canadian dramas. Let the CBC show the roots of Canada.

photo credit: me

Penny Oleksiak, women dominate Canadian 2016 Olympics results

Penny Oleksiak hadn't planned on staying to the end of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The original plan was to be home before the Olympics was finished. After winning 4 swimming medals, the 16-year-old carried the Canadian flag at the closing ceremony in Rio.

Oleksiak won the gold (100m freestyle) and silver (100m butterfly) in individual events. The bronze medals came in team events with the 4x100m freestyle relay and 4x200m freestyle relay. She shared the gold with Simone Manuel of the United States with each swimmer putting up a 52.7 seconds mark.

Oleksiak led the way for swimming medals and Canadian women's dominance early in the 2016 Olympics. The other women's swimming medals were bronze medals for Kylie Masse (women's 100m backstroke) and Hilary Caldwell (women's 200m backstroke). Women won 12 of the first 13 medals for Canada.

The women's rugby team took bronze. Rosie MacLennan, who was the Canadian flag bearer in the Opening Ceremony, once again won a gold medal on the trampoline and Brianne Theisen-Eaton's remarkable bronze in the heptathlon. MacLennan became the first Canadian athlete to successfully defend a goal medal in the Summer Games.

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Andre De Grasse is very fast but not as fast as Usain Bolt of Jamaica. The budding bromance between the two sprinters got more attention, such as the exchange late in the 200m semifinal.

De Grasse did take the silver medal in the 200m race behind Bolt, losing by .24 seconds with 19.78 for Bolt and 20.02 for De Grasse. He won the bronze in the 100m, finishing behind Bolt and Justin Gatlin of the United States. De Grasse was part of the 4×100m relay that took the bronze. The Canadians originally finished 4th in that race, but the U.S. was disqualified for an illegal baton exchange.

He became the first Canadian to win medals in the three sprint events at one Olympic Games.

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In the Olympics, you have to beat the best athletes in the world, even if they are from your country. The two Canadian women's beach volleyball teams played each other to reach the quarterfinals. Sarah Pavan and Heather Bansley swept fellow Canadians Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas 21-16, 21-11 to remain undefeated to that point. Pavan and Bansley were eliminated in the quarterfinals by eventual gold-medal winner Germany.

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Ashton Eaton supported his wife, Brianne Theisen-Eaton, during the Olympics by wearing a Canada hat. But Ashton is a U.S. athlete in the decathlon while Brianne is a Canadian athlete in the heptathlon.

Some on social media express displeasure over Ashton's hat choice. The world is filled with these types of relationships. Hell, I want that kind of relationship. Everyone knows why Ashton wore the hat. Everyone knew Ashton would root for the Canadian in that race. It's just a hat.

CanadianCrossing.com Olympics coverage

Canada finished in the number 10 position with 22 medals: 4 gold, 3 silver, and 15 bronze medals. Canada hadn't won as many as 4 gold medals since the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

The 22 medals tied Atlanta 1996 (3-11-8) for the highest total in a non-boycotted summer Games. For the first time since 1976 in Montreal, Canadian women won more medals (16) than the men (6). Canada's women also earned 16 medals in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

I'm sorry everyone. I blew it. No excuses

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) August 12, 2016

Elliotte Friedman has done a lot of events in his career besides the NHL. Friedman called Toronto Raptors games, reported on Toronto Blue Jays games, and even was the studio host for the CFL on CBC. And Friedman has covered the Olympics before 2016. But he was pressed into a play-by-play role after Steve Armitage was forced to withdraw over a diagnosis of chronic heart failure.

Friedman called swimming and diving for the CBC. His most significant moment came when he mixed up the lanes of Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps during the 200-metre individual medley gold medal race.

"I'm sorry everyone. I blew it. No excuses."

But Friedman will be remembered for stepping up and accepting the blame for what happened. The positive reaction was amazing.

Announcers mess up live calls all the time. Chris Cuthbert had the wrong Montréal Canadiens player scoring a game-winning goal in a playoff game on NBCSN 2 years ago. Friedman mixed up the lanes of a pair of swimmers from the same country. And he owned up to that mistake.

And thanks to Canadians, mostly Canadians, who went on social media to let Friedman know things were okay.

2014 Olympics notebook: Canada women's hockey comeback

Mark Lee covered athletics and synchronized diving in Rio for his 13th Olympics. Lee has disappeared from the spotlight after Rogers Sportsnet took over the national hockey rights in Canada in 2014. The CBC laid Lee off in August 2014 after losing the NHL rights. Lee does cover amateur sporting events part-time for Sportsnet.

Whatever the criticism of Lee calling CFL or NHL games, amateur sports is an area where Lee definitely shines. I was glad to get a CBC feed for the gold medal women's hockey game at the 2014 Olympics. Lee was spot on at key moments in overtime with points missed by NBC's #1 hockey crew.

We'll look forward to seeing Mark Lee again in the 2018 Olympics.

CanadianCrossing.com music coverage

The Olympians even got involved with The Tragically Hip final show on Saturday. Ron MacLean, surrounded by Olympians in Rio, gave us a poetic introduction to the last show in Kingston. We even saw Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the crowd with his black The Tragically Hip shirt. Downie acknowledged the prime minister and also reflected on how poorly the First Nations people had been treated by the rest of Canada.

The numbers from Numeris are off the charts. The broadcast reached 11.7 million across CBC television, radio, and digital platforms. The average audience was 4.04 million. Canada only has about 35 million.

CBC made things very easy for people not in Canada to see the concert. I streamed it with ease on the CBC Music YouTube channel. The post-show from CBC Music was a nice complement to the evening. And a special thanks for not bleeping the f-word that Gord Downie sang in the concert. Another reason why Canadians are cool.

The Olympics and that concert were unifying forces for a country. While the Olympics are really good at unification, the concert did so much more.

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photo credit: CBC Sports
screen capture: Twitter/FriedgeHNIC

NHL TV schedule and notebook: February 26, 2014

You aren't imagining things. This is Wednesday and we have a NHL schedule and notebook. The NHL is back from the Olympics break. We have a NHL Center Ice free preview and a couple of TSN games.

The NHL Center Ice free preview runs from today through March 4. We'll have the rest of the preview games on Friday. The schedule now lists every game, including CBC and TSN games. Games airing on NBCSN or the NHL Network are not available on Center Ice; the only game in the free preview where that applies is Sunday's Heritage Classic.

If you are blacked out from the NHL Network's telecast of Chicago and the New York Rangers, the backup game is supposed to be Detroit-Ottawa.

Hopefully, some U.S. Center Ice viewers can pick up the TSN feed for an excellent matchup as the Red Wings travel to the Bell Centre in Montréal tonight and the Los Angeles Kings journey to Calgary on Thursday.

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NHL Network

Tape delayed
Thursday Detroit @ Montréal, 3p

TSN

Wednesday
Detroit @ Montréal, 7:30p
Thursday
Los Angeles @ Calgary, 9:30p

NHL Center Ice free preview

Wednesday
Detroit @ Montréal, 7:30p
St. Louis @ Vancouver, 10:30p
Thursday
Toronto @ NY Islanders, 7p
Montréal @ Pittsburgh, 7p
Detroit @ Ottawa, 7:30p
Phoenix @ Winnipeg, 8p
Los Angeles @ Calgary, 9:30p
Minnesota @ Edmonton, 9:30p

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If the playoffs were to start today, Montréal and Toronto would be the only 2 Canadian teams in the playoffs.

The Habs and Leafs each have 70 points, though Toronto has played more games (60) vs. Montréal's 59 games.

Both teams are only 1 point behind Tampa Bay for 2nd place in the "Adams" Division.

Ottawa has 63 points, one point behind Detroit. The Senators have only played 59 games. Ottawa would be out of the playoffs right this second.

Vancouver is 5th in the "Smythe" Division with 63 points, 6 points behind the top wild card spot (Minnesota). Dallas and Phoenix have 64 points.

The Canucks have also played 60 games vs. Minnesota (59), Dallas (58), and Phoenix (58).

Winnipeg has rised to 6th in the "Norris" Division with 62 points. The Jets have played well under their new coach, Paul Maurice. To be 1 point behind Vancouver at this stage (with the same number of games at 60) should be good news for the Jets, but reflects how far the Canucks have fallen.

Calgary (51) and Edmonton (47) have the 2 worst records in the "Campbell" Conference.

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To an extent, we are happy that the NHL is back from the Olympic break. There is a bit of sadness, though, that needs to be acknowledged.

Canadians at school, at work, in bars suffering from "mysterious illnesses" were unified behind the women's hockey team in their comeback against the United States and the men's hockey drive past the U.S. and Sweden to the gold medal. You could be from Calgary or Ottawa, Toronto or Montréal, Red Deer or Charlottetown. Regional differences didn't matter.

When the U.S. fans jumped on the bandwagon for the men's semifinal, they couldn't have turned out the manner in which Canadians grasped that game. Hockey really matters more north of the border.

I also didn't miss the fighting and the slower pace of NHL hockey. Olympic hockey has checking and players were hit into the boards, as John Tavares found out. But the senseless fighting to "wake things up" or "settle a score" disappeared for about 3 weeks. That was beautiful.

I haven't missed games where there was a tie with about 5 minutes left in regulation and you knew the players weren't going to try that hard to win the game in regulation. I haven't missed teams who win through intimidation and getting more than their fair share of calls.

The international rules were confusing, but the games felt mostly called properly. The U.S. women were upset about a few non-calls with Canada over too many players on the ice. Otherwise, the officiating felt fair.