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Our city hosting these games showed the world a magnificent city ready for its moment in the sun.
The “beautiful game.” Two global cities. A blessed nation. July 1, any year, any place, Canada.
Taken together, this summer of 2026 – the 159th birthday of our country – has given us more than enough memories and images to reinforce our pride in our home and native land (with deference and respect to our Indigenous Peoples). The epicentre, this time, has been Vancouver and Toronto, but the vibe reverberates across the land.
Eight years ago, our governments and Canadian soccer enthusiasts embraced the idea of co-hosting the world’s greatest sport spectacle – the FIFA World Cup. We’re not talking hockey – Canada’s game. We’re talking the global game played wherever humans have feet and an object they can kick from person to person, on pavement or grass, dirt or gravel; a pastime surpassed only by racing on foot.
They call it the beautiful game: simple and arresting and enthralling when played at its best.
When the best soccer players from the best nations gather to compete for the title of Best in the World, Canada is rarely there. Heading into the 2026 World Cup, our men’s team had competed in just two World Cup tournaments, ever. They had never won a World Cup game. Only one Canadian player had scored a World Cup goal.
So, Canada’s partnership in staging the 2026 World Cup with Mexico and the United States was a bold venture. It signalled a country seeking to do what it has always done – punch above its weight and wield influence beyond its military and demographic clout.
On Friday, June 12, the world saw what we are capable of – starting in Toronto, where many would rather us focus on commerce and clearing road congestion than fun and games. Hours before game time, Canada’s first men’s World Cup game on home soil, a rolling sea of cheering humanity, robed in red and white, gathered at Trinity Bellwoods Park and morphed into a roaring choir shouting and singing battle hymns to the soccer gods. As bars began to fill, fan fests heated up and Canadians by the millions brushed up on soccer rules as they gathered for living room watch parties, the rolling tide of fans marched down Strachan Avenue towards the stadium.
Not to be outdone, thousands of Bosnia and Herzegovina fans, Canada’s opponent this day, rode a blue wave, blocks long, and headed towards the refurbished stadium, ready for the contest. This would set a template for all six matches in Toronto as successive countries showed their colours en masse, as if at home.
The critics and naysayers had predicted chaos and feared embarrassment of civic failure – gridlock and broken infrastructure in the face of visitors in the hundreds of thousands. Oh, there were some delays and long lines and expensive ticket prices but the television images that were sent out to the world showed a magnificent city ready for its moment in the sun.
Faced with World Cup hosting costs estimated at $380 million, supported through federal and provincial contributions, City reserves and other revenues, Mayor Olivia Chow accepted the challenge, absorbed the criticism, and set up the Champions Table and Legacy Committee to help secure meaningful benefits for Toronto. (I am a member of these committees that have been active in securing more than $8 million in private-sector funding to support Toronto’s hosting and legacy efforts). Mayor Chow has done us proud. Torontonians have flocked to Fan Fest and watch parties and soccer party zones. Our police, TTC, city staff and thousands of volunteers from Greater Toronto and southern Ontario have performed admirably – from that opening game where Canada scored its first ever World Cup point, with a 1-1 draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina, all the way to Toronto’s Game 6, slated for July 2.
Six games. Nine different nations represented. Each one, comfortable among compatriots and versus fellow Canadians rooting for opposing home country and home team. Toronto is made for this kind of bloodless global tête-à-tête – a place where everyone gets to have a say, wear their jersey of choice and root for ancestral home before landing right back at our new home and adopted land.
One of the slogans I think best describes our city is, “Home to the World”. That’s what Toronto has been in these weeks of FIFA fever.
Canadians are no strangers to big, consequential celebrations and global congregations. Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver have staged Olympic Games. In 1967, every corner of our country was ablaze with fireworks and proud declarations of national pride in reaching 100 years as a nation while Montreal’s spectacular Expo 67 introduced us to the world. We know how to behave beneath the global gaze.
But, objectively, especially for us here in Toronto, we’ve been caught up in something more uplifting and infectious than most imagined. The FIFA World Cup is pure joy, whether you call it football or soccer. Forty-eight nations of the world have travelled to North America to compete for the 2026 World Cup, and we saw nine of them in our hometown.
By the time the Canadian men played – and won – their second game, with an overwhelming 6-0 victory over Qatar, we didn’t even need a win to remind us we share a special city in a most glorious country on earth. Our Team Canada is enriched by players whose journeys and family stories reflect refugee camps, embattled countries and communities across Canada, now rooted in places like Brampton, Montreal and Nova Scotia.
Happy Birthday, Canada. From far and wide, O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
