Читать книгу Let It Snow. Keeping Canada's Winter Sports Alive онлайн

25 страница из 53

This photo of John Campbell of Parry Sound, circa 1895, recalls an era when winter was king.

Part of this was due to “blue laws” emerging from the Sabbatarian movement in the early decades of the twentieth century. They restricted Sunday activities in many cities so that by 1912 tobogganing was banned in places like Toronto’s High Park on the one day that most people might have the leisure time to enjoy it.

Urban poverty, long working hours, and then two wars and a depression ensured that a return to the glory of winter activity similar to that of the countryside past would have to await more affluent lifestyles of the post–Second World War period.

If anything, city dwellers relied on watching others take part in activities they had once participated in themselves. Professional hockey as a modern commercial entertainment played in indoor hockey palaces was perfectly suited to the needs of these city residents. Cities like Montreal and Toronto differentiated themselves from neighbouring pretenders like Ottawa and Hamilton by building increasingly larger arenas, culminating, in the case of Toronto, in the opening of Maple Leaf Gardens in 1931.