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Macleans.ca

Canada’s magazine

My marriage is better than the Leafs—but the Leafs are pretty good, too

This past Sunday came my wedding anniversary: 19. We were married at St. Lawrence Hall in 1992, and I remember walking home in the mild weather to our hotel—the King Edward—where we immediately ordered room service, having been too distracted during the ceremony to eat much of anything. The voice on the other end of the phone told us that the hotel’s chef was in the throes of apendicitis, and would we settle for soup and a clubhouse sandwich between us? We said that would be fine, and besides, it would give me a chance to check Leaf highlights, maybe on SportsDesk at 2 am. There were no iPhones, no instant scores in 1992. Back then, you went to the car and turned on the radio to know what was happening.

Quite an introduction

Between the sometimes-luminous opening ceremonies and the corny clichés of the closing show, Canada presented versions of itself the world had never seen