CALGARY — Canada's rallying cry for the next Winter Games has an undertone of the current geopolitical climate.
Both Olympians and Paralympians will compete under the slogan "We Are All Team Canada" in less than a year in Milan-Cortina, Italy.
Canadian Olympic Committee chief executive officer David Shoemaker says the message is about unity, but he acknowledges the recent surge in Canadian nationalism in the face of economic and sovereignty threats from the United States ties into it.
"This is meeting the moment," Shoemaker said Wednesday.
"We felt an opportunity, but also a responsibility to this country to just remind Canadians that when we're with this incredible spike in patriotism and unity, that sport has this amazing power to bind us," he continued, pointing to the 10.7 million Canadians who tuned into the Four Nations Face-Off hockey final in February.
It's the first time the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian Paralympic Committee launched a joint campaign for a Games.
Canada's Olympic mantra last summer in Paris was "Brave Is Unbeatable" and the Paralympic team's was "Greatness Moves Us."
"With all the negativity going on in the world right now, and I don't mean to dismiss that lightly, people are really being negatively affected by this trade war, in particular, losing jobs, losing businesses, a profound impact," Shoemaker said.
"We think there's something quite positive in the message that Team Canada is all over the world at any one point in time, competing on behalf of this country and doing us proud."
That representation also has power, Shoemaker said. Canada was the first country to pull out of Tokyo's Summer Games in 2020, before they were postponed to 2021, citing public health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The slogan came originally during COVID, right in the aftermath of that crucial moment where we felt compelled, on behalf of Canadian athletes who had nowhere to train ahead of Tokyo Olympics, to pull out of those Games, and because we were all Team Canada, it was saying we all have to do our part to help stem the tide of the pandemic," Shoemaker explained.
"We used that tag line then, and we thought it was just as appropriate now to use it again because we're all part of this."
Shoemaker says the U.S. tariffs and the global economic uncertainty they've imposed hasn't derailed the COC's preparation for the Olympic Games that open Feb. 6 and close Feb. 22.
The Paralympic Games follow March 6-15.
The COC and CPC prepare athletes for the Games environment and look after their needs on the ground.
Winter Games are smaller in scope than summer because of fewer sports. Canada's Olympic team in 2022 numbered 215 athletes and 85 coaches, plus support staff.
The Paralympic team was 48 athletes plus coaches and support staff.
"From the COC standpoint, we try to financially plan for the Olympic Games years in advance and de-risk currency fluctuations," Shoemaker said.
"The funny thing that's happening with the Canadian dollar right now, it's strengthening against the U.S. dollar, but it's weakening against the euro, but we try to plan for that.
"We're not currency speculators. We kind of lock in our risk long before the Games take place."
Meanwhile, the COC and CPC had asked the federal government to increase core funding for Canada's 62 national sports organizations because there hasn't been a raise in two decades. The appeal is for a $144-million annual increase starting with the 2025 budget.
The application has been slowed by a tumultuous few months in federal politics leading to Monday's election.
"It's hard to gauge progress in that space," Shoemaker said. "We still have not received it, but that's of course, because we're in caretaker mode with government."
The sports portfolio underwent a seventh leadership change in eight years in the most recent cabinet shuffle, and was also shifted from its own public-facing identity to the Heritage Department umbrella.
"We don't know who our next government will be as of yet, and at the same time, I feel like whomever becomes our next prime minister, and whatever party takes over, there will be a real attention to Canada's athletes on the road to Milano-Cortina, on the road to L.A. 28 in the Summer Olympics," Shoemaker said.
"It's clear that sport matters to Canadians, and we feel a degree of confidence that will manifest itself in financial support."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2025.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
