As can be seen by Justine's reactions beginning about the 6:00 mark...
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY1AbDF5m7s
...or the sisters comments on the Strombo show at the 5:22 mark...
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2wX00vqhRc
ETA: Personally, I don't distinguish between provinces when I cheer for the athletes. I cheer for them all equally as Canadians. But, I am from Ontario...re: RABID's last comment.
Just to let you know that the first video is geo-blocked, so I don’t know what Justine Dufour-Lapointe’s reaction was, or indeed what she was reacting to.
But, I was really surprised that there was so much controversy about the editing somebody did to the photo of the sisters shown in the second video. (For the benefit of those that haven’t seen the photos, the references to Canada were changed to references to Quebec).
For goodness sake, the girls are from Quebec! I could understand there being uproar if they and their entire family were from, say, Ontario (
), and somebody was trying to claim them for Quebec. But, that is not the case.
To me, this is not somebody trying to use them to support separatism. This is just somebody who is using them to emphasise the success of their local sporting talent.
But, then again, I would say that. Because, before Sochi, I did exactly the same thing to the team photos of the athletes from Northern Ireland that were competing! (See the photo links in
this post). I changed the Team GB or Team Ireland logos to references to Northern Ireland.
I know that since I joined this forum I have made a big deal about sports people being from Northern Ireland. But, a lot of that is purely an aide to help foreigners realise just who is from this wee country. Let’s face it, when our athletes are spread out between different countries’ teams (hey, our
19 Olympic/Paralympic Gold Medallists have represented a total of 4 different countries – Great Britain, Ireland, Canada and South Africa), it is hard to keep up with how they are doing!
I've lived in Quebec a few years back and what I came away with with the modern generation is that separation is their parents' issue. With the younger people there is instead a pride of their unique identity. They'll fly the Canadian maple leaf when they win and see no contradiction to being proud Quebecers first and foremost. In fact I think to a lesser degree it is this way in many of Canada's provinces where folks think of themselves first foremost the province they come from, except for maybe Ontario
I wouldn't go as far as to say that the young people here don't have strong feelings about the status of Northern Ireland (a lot of them do!) But, we are getting to the stage that people here are not just proud to be British or Irish. They are also proud to be Northern Irish. And that is something that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. (Largely because there was nothing to be proud of, since we were too busy fighting each other!)
Our situation is the opposite of what is happening with the Quebecois. We were always proud of the national identities, but it took time to be proud of our own identity. The Quebecois were always proud of their own identity, but took time to be proud of the national identity. But, both examples show that it is possible to be proud of both identities.
As for identities for sports people, well I have already expressed my feelings about this subject. See
this post, from the time when nationality issues forced the break-up of the brilliant partnership between Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran.
Incidentally, for those that are interested, Mervin is from Saskatchewan. So, he would not be affected.
CaroLiza_fan
