Ryan Reynolds? Mike Myers? The FOMO Crowd Have Their Day At WC 2026

Well, Canada— and Toronto in particular— now has an idea what $1.2 B paid to FIFA buys you. It buys you Canadians flying in from elsewhere to prove their bona fides to a nation that they left behind long ago. It bought the best seats for VIPs. It bought butt-hurt Canadians booing the U.S. flag. Some deal, huh? 

It’s not all negative. What Friday’s tie between Canada and Bosnia Herzegovina bought for the billion-plus was a ticket back to a time not that long ago when plucky Canada meant something different from today’s Elbows Up victimhood. In 2010 the Vancouver Olympics might have reached peak positive self image with 14 gold medals and a rush of pride not felt since the 1972 Canada/ Soviet hockey series.

Men won the first hockey gold medal since the 1950s. Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue won Ice dancing gold. Charles Hamelin won two golds in short-track speed skating. Christine Nesbitt won the 1000 m long tack gold. And Jon Montgomery launched his career on The Amazing Race by winning skeleton gold. 

The Canadian maple leaf was a unifying symbol that year The words to O Canada were the ones everyone remembers from growing up. Not improvs from Chantal Kravaziuk or Rufus Wainwright. Best of all, everyone thought Vancouver and Canada were cool. The views, the musical talent, the 70-cent dollar. Suddenly Canada and Vancouver went to the top of cool places for international tourism. 

And that might have been the problem. Taking a step up in class might have created false expectations for a country that still had some self awareness left. Before Canada knew it they had a raging case of FOMO. Fear of missing out on the next great thing. 

Nothing epitomized that misbegotten FOMO impulse more than the decision to elect Justin Trudeau as prime minister. Not once. Not twice. But three times. Never mind that there wasn’t a thought in his head beyond getting a GQ cover. The son of a debonair, razor-sharp father, he would force the glam media to pay attention to him. And in FOMO Land that’s better than the Order of Canada.

Justin was to be the Northern Barack Obama. Social justice warrior. Hipster. Binary sex symbol. In case anyone missed it he pronounced Canadian culture dead. The nation was now a Yan Martel fantasy hotel of cultures where, to paraphrase the Eagles, you can check in and you can never be forced to leave. 

For a while it fooled the gullible. Before Covid. Before the Truckers Convoy. Before Blackface. Before “she saw it differently from me”. Trudeau made the rounds of American media with his pouty little smirk and his asinine wardrobe malfunctions. The fashionistas ate up his pedigree— fed by the Liberal war room. 

No need in repeating what led to him sneaking out the back door in December of 2024, buried by polls that had him destroying the Liberal brand if he remained. Suffice to say good will and good governance had disappeared from the national discussion. Beloved symbols were pulled down, sprayed with paint or, like Sir John A. Macdonald, Egerton Ryerson or Lord Dundas, expunged. The esoteric was in vogue. So was rooting for Hamas and climate anarchy with a convocted criminal as environment minister.

This produced a few ruffles of discontent. Separatists in Quebec were joined by Albertans “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore”. The country’s defence and economy were such a laughingstock that a president of the U.S. joked they should become America’s 51st state. Which sent the FOMO crew into a sulk.

So you can see why the idea of paying a ransom to stage the World Cup was a convenient diversion to the FOMO crowd. Like flying private or $2000 catering bills. If you can’t bring Canada to Ryan Reynolds then bring Ryan Reynolds to Canada. 

The FOMO got their voters money’s worth on opening day for Canada down by Lake Ontario. Canadians and Bosnians gave a good imitation of the League of Nations, finding love, peace and racial harmony through the “beautiful game”. And when you think about it, a World Cup was a perfect metaphor for Canadian elites. They became completely besotted with a sport about which they knew nothing 20 minutes ago— except it's the flavour of the day. (Just as they're suddenly instant experts on Alberta who are the villains du jour.) 

For those Canadians who’ve always loved the game and withstood its tortured path to 2026, seeing the entrance of the maple leaf on players in the retro-fitted BMO Stadium was pure joy. Singing the anthem as if it was 2010 again was a gas. Seeing Cyle Larin save their bacon was rhapsodic.

Best of all for those in the stands is they didn’t have to watch interminable ads from CDN government saying, "Hey we screwed the pooch the past twelve years, but we are really, really focused on getting off our ass now". Unless they're ads from the Ontario government saying, "Hey we screwed the pooch the past twelve years, but we are really, really focused on getting off our ass now”.

While the desperation comeback to tie Bosnia (population 3 million) was not the win experts had expected it was good enough to prevent an epic faceplant. (Don’t forget the last time Bosnia upset people’s plans it led to WWI.) A loss in such a close Group was likely fatal. So, take a bow Cyle Larin.

God or Allah willing, Canada can scrape past feisty Qatar while Bosnia gets smoked by Switzerland to advance to the knockout stage where the big boys come out to play— or use the women’s washroom. 

You never know what kind of team Canada may or may not have in the 2030 WC in Morocco, Portugal and Spain. But for one day it was great to see Canadians all pulling together on the oars,

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his 2023 book Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, was voted a Top 20 greatest professional hockey books of all time by bookauthority.org . https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1770415300?linkCode=gs2&tag=uuid0a1-20 His previous book with his son Evan, Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed Hockey is now available on Amazon. His new poetry collection In Other Words is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca and on Kindle books at https://www.amazon.ca/dp/106980270