CA-NA-DA! CA-NA-DA!

Yay...! Team Canada won the World Junior Hockey tournament by defeating the Russian team, 4-2. Okay, so nobody outside of Canada really cares about this tournament, but if you can imagine the fever of March Madness and just replace school spirit and allegiance with national pride, that's the World Jr. Hockey tournamnet.

If you want to know the secret to Canada's success in this tournament (Team Canada has won this tournament 13 out of 34 times since its inception in 1974. Only the Soviet Union/CIS/Russia have won it more times), it has to do with teamwork. It was very evident that teams that are very talented individually often fail to be a cohesive unit and cannot play as a team. It's not about who are the most talented, it's about which players can play within the team concept the best.

I think it has to do with the nature of Canadians and the culture of Canada. We're definitely less individualistic than our American neighbours, and it has a lot to do with mosaic vs. melting pot mentality of Canadians. In Canada, we form a mosaic - a patchwork of different nationalities that aren't ask to abandon their homeland cultures, but are asked to maintain them but also contribute to the rich fabric of Canadian culture. The American melting pot asks that you become an American and abandon all other values for its own. It's a singular culture that often doesn't play well with others.

In a sense, Canadians are more accepting of others, their values, and their beliefs. We respect other points of view and do not tread on them. Americans only believe in the American way, right or wrong. There's definitely nothing wrong with that, but if sometimes doing things the American way may not be the appropriate thing to do, they don't know how to do things any different.

Flame on!