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And when the young boy (even though he tries repeatedly to explain to his mother that he simply cannot wear a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater) is still forced to wear that "wrong" jersey during his hockey games, this leads to trouble on the ice (where the poor boy is considered by both his teammates and by the local priest and referee as a symbol of English Canadian power and oppression) and then a visit to church for enforced repentance and prayer. And in The Hockey Sweater, Roch Carrier has a young Quebecois boy (basically Carrier himself, since The Hockey Sweater is partially autobiographical) enduring the horrid indignity (at least for a young hockey loving Quebec boy) of having to wear a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey sweater (the clothes of the enemy so to speak, since the rivalry between the Maple Leafs and Les Canadiens is major, is palpable and also represents the all encompassing animosities between English and French Canada).įor when in The Hockey Sweater our young narrator's Montreal Canadiens jersey (with the same number as his idol, as Montreal hockey legend Maurice Richard on the back) becomes too small for him, his mother sends away for a new one from the Eaton's catalogue, but what arrives is not a Montreal Canadiens hockey sweater, but instead a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey. In many ways, Roch Carrier's Le chandail de Hockey (which is a condensed picture book version of a Carrier short story that originally was called Une abominable feuille d'érable sur la glace, An Abominable Maple Leaf on the Ice and has been translated by Sheila Fishman under the English language title of The Hockey Sweater) is not only an account regarding hockey and how much hockey as a sport defines Canada, but The Hockey Sweater is also a bit of a political allegory about the tensions between English and French Canadians (represented by the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens as symbols of this) as well as showing the cultural/political clout and power the Catholic Church used to wield like a pretty heavy duty mallet in Quebec (not anymore, of course, but yes, actually until quite annoyingly recently).