Timothy Allan Johnston
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The ATA Magazine - Editor’s Notebook

Volume 73, Nov/Dec 1992



                                           Where Were You When the Blue Jays Won?

 I’m sure everyone is familiar with this type of question. Where were you when you heard the news about JFK, about the Salk vaccine, about the end of the Cold War? Where were you when the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series?

It’s a question Canadians will find worth asking, I suppose, simply because the Jays’ victory was truly a unique event in the history of the sport. The best team in baseball this year still lives south of the 49th parallel but on the north shore of Lake Ontario. It might also be recalled that the last game in Atlanta came on the weekend before Canadians stopped in at their neighborhood polling stations to have their say about constitution building, a process that seems to have become our second most favored national pastime.

I was having dinner in a restaurant on Jasper Avenue in downtown Edmonton when the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series for Canada. With me was my wife Rebecca and five other couples. The purpose of the dinner was to have 12 more-or-less average western Canadians spend some time talking about the Charlottetown Accord and to see what the outcome of the referendum might be, based on the feelings of those present.

We started with a vote. The result was an even split between the unannounced Yes and No supporters. The vote was followed by salad and, for me, a medium-well-done New York steak. It was also followed by a fairly in-depth look at each of the main clauses of the Accord and some good exchanges about what the meaning and consequences of each might be, should the Yes side carry the referendum. We also discussed our perceptions of the mood of, if not the country, at least ourselves and what we thought about the process being followed by the politicians in bringing forth a new charter on which to base the governing of our country.

The process of the referendum brought out the most cantankerous responses from those amongst us who were inclined to give them. Special status for Québec got some attention, of course, and one diner, a construction manager, said that doing business with Québec was like hitting a brick wall. He much preferred working with Montanans.

As our dinner and discussion carried on into the evening, the waiter announced updates on the score of the ball game. These interruptions provided comic relief, particularly if we were embroiled in a heated discussion over which view should prevail. “There’s no way I sent Don Getty to bargain a new Canada for me,” an exasperated speaker said when the waiter interrupted to announce that the game was going into extra innings.

When it was clear that most of what might be said had been shared by the group, we voted once again. The result this time was that eight favored the Yes proposition while support for No had dwindled to four. I found it interesting that regardless of the fact the polls were saying No would carry the day, our little group of Canadians, having had the chance to talk about the Accord together, would have bought the proposition by a comfortable majority.

On our way home, driving west along Jasper Avenue, the first of the baseball fans were beginning to gather. Edmontonians have had considerable experience with victory nights on Jasper Avenue for their beloved Oilers, but I felt these fans were at a bit of a loss as to how to react to something as remote as a World Series win. They seemed pleased and yet rather polite at that early hour after the end of the game. I wondered, as I’m sure many Canadians did, whether victory on the diamond would provide the euphoria to carry the referendum on Monday.

Of course, it didn’t. Canadians turned out in record numbers to have their say and what they said was “We can do better.” Perhaps the stunning victory by a Canadian baseball team simply helped set everyone’s goals just a bit higher. The World Series is a very poor example of the art of compromise, something we Canadians are supposed to be good at. Perhaps a Canadian victory, in a sport that has forever been owned by the United States, caused some Canadians to believe we should not settle for a constitution that was uncomfortable for so many of us.

The evening proved to be exceptional, one that provided me with the only opportunity I had had to discuss the Accord. Hearing the views of a group of others who would share in the consequences of the referendum and being able to state my ideas in such a forum was a rare and valuable experience. Perhaps if more Canadians create such chances to talk about their country in the future, we’ll have better luck in agreeing to a new constitution.

That’s where I was when the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series; having dinner with some new friends and talking about this astonishing enterprise known as Canada. That’s how I will always remember this milestone in Canadian history. The referendum came and went, the Blue Jays returned to Toronto and the sun continued to rise and shine across our country.

You gotta love that team!