There’s something uniquely Canadian about my friend David Michaud. I’ve known him going on fourteen years now. We’re a bit of an odd couple quite frankly. He’s younger than me, much younger. He could be my son. Now that I think about it I have a son his age. We’ve come different paths have he and I but we’ve ended up in much the same place. Well not literally. I live in Nanaimo and he lives in Port Alberni both towns on Vancouver Island off Canada’s Pacific coast.

‘Mich’ is quintessentially Canadian.

Currently he is an owner of the Alberni Valley Bulldogs, a junior hockey team in the British Columbia Hockey League. Port Alberni is a tough blue collar town built on logging and fishing. The residents have a proud history carving out a living in challenging country. It’s the sort of town Ken Dryden, the former Canadiens goalie, and Member of Parliament wrote about in his book ‘The Game’. He wrote about hockey being less a sport than a cultural pillar in Canada. Dryden said you can tell a lot about the state of a small town by the condition of its ice hockey arena. If it was in disrepair Dryden observed, that most often meant the town was in decline. He wrote that in 1983 at a time when I was deep into the rhythm of being a ‘Canadian hockey parent’, a station I would enjoy for the next twenty-four years I might add. I have sat through over a thousand practices, hundreds of games and many dozens of tournaments in every small town in Western Canada (forgive the exaggeration, I’m on a role here) and Ken Dryden nailed it. There is a direct correlation between the cultural and economic vigour of small town Canada that is reflected in the state of the local arena. By that measure Port Alberni is doing well. And the ‘Dawgs’ are legitimate contenders this year!

The people who end up in hockey, earning a living through hockey, have typically been in love with the sport from the earliest age. David ‘Mich’ Michaud was no exception, growing up in Sudbury, Ontario as tough a Canadian town as there is, the home of the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League. He was a goalie in his minor hockey days, adequate even by his own boast. He knew way back then that he wanted to make his way in hockey but he also knew it wasn’t going to be stopping pucks. Trouble was, notwithstanding a dream taking root, it was impossible to see how that could become a reality.

He made his way out West landing in Kelowna BC where he became involved in minor hockey, taking the U18 AAA boys team to the Telus Cup, the national championship tournament. That team had Tyson Jost, a now familiar name to those who follow the NHL. And it was there that Mich met Jost’s agent with CAA, North America’s biggest sports agency. Another rung. Before he knew what hit him he was working for the agent for Sydney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and others, learning that side of the business. The Scottish have a saying, ‘It’s not wah ya’ know, uts who ya’ know’. Enough said.

From there David joined the front office of the Penticton Vees, as storied a junior hockey franchise as you will find. When the Vees were a senior mens team in the 1950’s they represented Canada at the World Championships and in 1955 came home with the gold medal. As a junior hockey club the Vees have developed many players who made it to the NHL fifty-five at last count, Brett Hull, Jost, Paul Kariya, Fabbro and Duncan Keith among them. They had championship pedigree and it was the perfect petri dish for Mich. There he could flourish and flourish he did. While he was with the Vees the club won yet another junior hockey National Championship.

Along each step of the way Mich could have been shaken loose. The demands of each step where tough and the pay was always low. Anyone without a dream would have been shaken loose. Not Mich. One way or the other he was going to find out if he could make his dream real.

Over the years various opportunities came and went until someone suggested that he buy into the Alberni Valley Bulldogs of the BC Hockey League. Now how do I say this? Ah yes, there it is. You have to have balls of steel to say ‘yes’ to that idea. Making junior hockey work as a profitable business is notoriously difficult. No one with any sense would say yes to that idea. But no one with any sense would play goalie in hockey.

Mich said ‘yes’.

Owning a junior hockey team is the most unusual of jobs. There is no clock to punch. There is no time off. To own a junior hockey club in the BCHL is to own a small business which needs constant everyday attention, year round. And it requires emotion. There is no not caring at this job. Caring about people, the players, the community is everything to the job and it is draining.

The short point is, it is a grind. From beginning to end it’s a grind and it reflects on the character of the people who get involved. People like David Michaud. He will have had many, many difficult days and even more sleepless nights, and many more lie ahead. He’ll have endured endless bus rides travelling back to Port Alberni after a difficult road trip, wondering how it was all going to work out. Not for the faint of heart this owning a junior hockey club.

In short, he has been put to the test and prevailed, his dream intact. He is resourceful and committed. He is strong and empathetic. He is tough and kind. And he is a dreamer. He is what it is to be Canadian.

I admire all the ‘David Michauds’ among us. People with dreams and the courage to pursue them. People who understand core values and how to trust those values to help them stand their own inevitable test. People who have made a choice to take the harder road where simpler routes were offered. People we can trust to lead young men, teaching them along the way, more than hockey.

This is the time of year where it all comes to a head across Canada, where junior leagues begin their gruelling playoff runs. It’s why I’m writing about it now. In the BCHL, the playoffs are about to begin and the Alberni Valley Bulldogs are in third place in their division, 21-4-1 since January. They will have everyone’s attention. By any measure the season has been a good one as the young team improved throughout the winter climbing from well down in the standings, entering the playoffs now with reason to believe they can win a championship. Credit of course goes to the players and coaches but this would not have happened had David Michaud not bought the Bulldogs. This is his gift, his payback to the players, the coaches and the small BC town that has supported them along the way. After a lifetime in hockey he has pedigree and a proven track record of developing players and championship teams.

I don’t know where this will all end for David. Hockey finds talent wherever it is in Canada and I expect opportunity will come calling. I am as sure as one can be that big things are ahead for Mich The Dreamer. And I do know this. It is on the backs of people like David that hockey has become what it is for Canadians. They give us more than hockey, they contribute in a most important way to the culture of our great country. They know without being told that the game is far more than just a game.

So to the thousands of ‘Davids’ across Canada who give so much of themselves for the Dream and for the love of the game: Here’s to you all and thank you.

Note: Mich did not know I was writing this blog and I daresay he’ll be uncomfortable with being in such sharp focus for my story. Whatever. He has his job, I have mine. It was just time to say it out loud.