Is Nothing Sacred?

Is nothing sacred? Apparently not as the CBC jettisons the Hockey Night in Canada theme song and opts instead to launch a $100,000 contest to pick a successor tune.

But is it really as simple as that? Can the CBC simply dump the "Dum-da-dum-da-da" song and replace it with something else?

Of course they can. But beware; if CBC management can get away with this egregious assault on our common culture, there’s no telling where it will end.

If the song goes then so, too, might other icons of the ice. If "Dah-da-dah-da-dah" is no more then it’s only a matter of time until we can say goodbye to "Coach’s Corner" as well.

After all, six years ago the CBC was ready to dump everyone’s favorite second banana Ron MacLean. And wasn’t it just four short years ago that it looked like the CBC wasn’t going to renew the contract of our national clown Don Cherry? If "Doo-do-do-doo-do" is gone, then what’s to stop the People’s Network from giving the boot to Canada’s most beloved duo since Rusty and Jerome?

And that’s just the beginning. If the CBC has its way, the HNIC theme’s swan song will be the first in a never-ending series of changes to everything that binds us together as Canadians.
If "Da-da-da-da-dah" goes then, just as surely as the first intermission follows the first period, you can also say goodbye to Bob Cole. Like the song, he’s been around for forty years and maybe, to those at the CBC, is starting to show his age.

But what would "Hockey Night in Canada" be without the sonorous, somnolent tones and the obvious oversights and omissions of our nation’s favorite play-by-play man? Except for the late, great Forster Hewitt, there’s no better Leafs-lover to butcher the language and mangle the play calling than our own Mr. Hockey.

But that won’t be the end of it. With the song, Ron, Don and Bob gone, it won’t be long before the CBC remakes the entire game.

With its broadcasting clout, the network may well force the NHL to change some rules. If the CBC brass have their way, we could easily see the end of fighting in hockey and the reduction of our national sport to a pitiful display of skating, passing and shooting.

The CBC must be stopped now. If they can kill our beloved "Da-da-da-dah-duh-dah", there’s no telling what damage they can do to the game we love.