Why most Canadians seem to care less than other nations about the World Cup

I'm back in North America for a month of mixing business and pleasure. Unbelievably, the fabulous Wilco played my hometown of Fredericton last Thursday, and thanks to my brother I managed to catch all the action in fourth row seats. Tomorrow I'm off to New York City to scour jazz archives for a week and then I'll head to Montreal for another week of the same. Call me an international man of libraries.

It was nice to be in Europe to take in the excitement of the World Cup, but most of my friends kept asking me why football wasn't popular in North America. I recently came across some terrific vintage press coverage from the Canadian Broadcasting Corportation about the first and only time Team Canada made it to the World Cup in 1986. I think it goes some way to explaining Canadian disinterest in football, and I can safely say that not much has changed in the intervening twenty years. Check it out here.