This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. One of Canada’s former top generals has warned Canadians against booing the American national anthem at sporting events. His reasoning is that it’s important not to burn bridges especially in light of the upcoming renegotiation of CUSMA – the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade deal. While on vacation recently on the east coast I overheard a fellow, who I deduced was American, complaining because the local pub he’d popped into didn’t serve U.S. bourbon. He announced to anyone who would listen that, that was fine, then they weren’t getting his money. I suspect that the owners of said establishment frankly don’t give a shmick. I also would suggest that while the United States tourism is taking a licking because Canadian tourism numbers continue to decline – I use Vegas as an example where many of the hotels and venues have been taking the Canadian dollar at par – but Canada isn’t seeing as much of an impact in terms of American tourism numbers dropping. In fact, recent data suggests there has been a slight decline in American tourists coming to Canada. However, research from the University of Toronto’s School of Cities suggests that Canadian visits to U.S. cities has declined by approximately 42 per cent year over year. Do I think it’s important right now to stay in the good graces of our neighbours to the south because of CUSMA? Yes. More importantly I think it is always terrible behavior to boo another country’s national anthem no matter what country it is. Sports and competition are supposed to be, or so I thought, about sportsmanship and dare I say – honour?