Domi Diplomacy.

This is part 1 of 5 in the series on Canada<>US Tariff War.

America’s national pastime is baseball. Canada’s national sport is hockey. Both sports have “a code” for dealing with cheap shots. In baseball, when an opposing player takes a cheap shot, retribution is delivered by the pitcher to the villain (or his teammate) the next at-bat. 

The ‘hero’ pitcher intentionally throws a fastball at the villain (or his teammates) back. If you’ve ever seen this you know how unsatisfying it is for both teams. Sometimes skirmishes break out or the mound will be charged. But fighting is not allowed or tolerated in the game of baseball.

Now compare how cheap shots are handled in Canada’s hockey. If an opposing player checks your goalie or hits a teammate into the boards from behind, ‘the code’ emerges. The villain, whether they want to or not, expects they must drop their gloves and trade punches like a man with a hero from the other team. The hero who challenges the villain is said “to answer the call”. 

The call is usually answered by the team’s ‘tough guy’. But any member of the team can stand up to fight the villain, whether you’re the tough guy or not. And in some rare cases this happens because strategy, rather than size, can dictate the outcome of any hockey fight. Fighting in hockey is not allowed, but tolerated. Because it is a self-policing safety mechanism.

Growing up in Canada between Toronto and Detroit left my fandom wide open between the Toronto Maple Leafs or Detroit Red Wings. Ultimately, I became a Red Wings fan because they had Steve Yzerman, my favorite player and the greatest captain in hockey history.

To grow up in the 90’s in Canada was a special time. Every Saturday if I wasn’t playing hockey myself I’d be in front of the TV watching CBC Hockey Night in Canada. And I always looked forward to Coach’s Corner where the alpha Don Cherry and beta Ron McLean reviewed the action from the prior period. But being the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and based in Toronto, most of the games I watched were of the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

Although the Maple Leafs were our rivals, I came to admire one player particularly, Tie Domi. Because whenever his teammates needed, he was the first to ‘answer the call’. 

Domi was an unusual tough guy for the era because he stood at 5’8”. Meanwhile, my Red Wings tough guy Bob Probert, was 6’3”. A full 7 inches taller. In other sports like MMA or boxing you rarely see fighting between two opponents as size mismatched as these were. 

And yet when the time came for Tie Domi to answer the call, he never backed down against much bigger opponents, especially Probert. 

So how did he do it? How did this little guy, against all the odds, take on the big guys? Was Domi a kamikaze whole just got lucky not to get killed? I don’t think so.

Tie Domi was the smartest; most ‘strategic’ tough guy of his era. During this era, most tough guys attempted to go punch-for-punch with Bob Probert using their right-hand. Usually they lost, lost bad.

Meanwhile, Tie deployed a contrarian and ultimately a winning strategy. He confused all opponents by staying low and landing surprise face-bombs with his left-hand. This Domi Diplomacy kept opponents in line. Any opponent could still take a cheap shot on one of Tie’s teammates but they knew if would come at the risk of Domi Diplomacy. 

This is a similar diplomatic situation Canada faces today. After winning the election, Trudeau travelled down to Mar-a-Lago to offer congratulations. But instead of a brotherly exchange, Trump took a cheap shot at Canada. Suggesting Canada should become the 51st state and Trudeau the governor of Canada.

And what did Trudeau do? Trudeau turtled.  

Instead of answering the call and standing up for Canadians at Mar-a-Lago he got in the fetal position and cried mercy. It was Trudeau’s moment to offer a diplomatic Shawinigan Handshake. Instead, he pulled a Claude Lemieux.

A small part of every Canadian understood Trudeau’s reaction. Just keep a stiff upper lip and smile. Keep your head down, keep working hard. Ignore the bully.

But for many of us, especially those of us who cherish ‘the code’ in Canada’s national sport, it was the most embarrassed we’ve ever felt to be Canadian. No one takes a cheap shot without facing the code.

Once he got himself composed, before leaving office, Trudeau tried to trade stand up to Trump. Trump announced tariffs, Trudeau announced tariffs. Trump threw a right-hand, Trudeau threw a right-hand. As with fighting the bigger Bob Probert this strategy is destined to fail.

Canada’s politicians and strategists need to wake up and realize they will never… ever be able to trade rights with Trump. The only way forward is to duck and throw a diplomatic left, Domi-style.

By Chris Hollister

Proud Canadian.