July 1 was a serendipitous date for Canadian sportswriters eager to reinforce heterosexual discipline in professional hockey.  The coincidental timing of Canada Day, the Toronto Pride Parade and the NHL’s "UFA Day" (more on this below) offered a perfect excuse to lambaste Brian Burke -- one of the handful of hockey personalities who tries to take a meaningful stand against homophobia -- for caring too much about homophobia.  Sadly, most of the Canadian media seized that opportunity, reinforcing the hyper-masculine culture in which hockey is mired.

You might wonder about pro hockey and world peace -- what's this about, is he nuts? Well, maybe. But considering the NHL hockey violence often in the news, and hockey analyst Don Cherry's repeated tributes to Canada's Afghan war dead within "Coach's Corner" on CBC's Hockey Night In Canada, I could examine the militarization of Cherry's segment and the loss of respect for Canada as a peacemaker in the world. But I won't. I will, however, question the role of violence in Canada's fall-winter-spring passion and what that says about this country. I believe it's a lack of imagination that keeps our beloved game unchangeable in the minds of violence proponents. Canada, we're better than this. We're peacemakers.

In a bold initiative to continue making conservative values Canadian values, this column can breathlessly reveal that Stephen Harper has come up with his masterstroke. When future historians look back on the Harper years, they may well consider this his most sublime move ever.