A couple of days ago I lamented in this space about Lennox Lewis and how conflicted I was with his success. He became a dominant heavyweight while fighting for Britain despite growing up in Kitchener and winning a gold medal for Canada at the '88 Olympics.
I just read an excellent article in yesterday's Globe and Mail by Stephen Brunt in which he sums the entire conflict up perfectly. I'm posting his closing remarks below as I couldn't have said it better myself. Brunt nails it.
So what does a man with more money than he'll ever be able to spend, with the option of living anywhere and doing anything, do now? He builds a great big house for him and his wife-to-be.
In Kitchener. Ontario. Canada.
If Canadians had known that, in the end, he was always coming home, that he never really left, that he was flying a flag of financial convenience all along, they'd have had a lot easier time embracing his accomplishments as those of one of their own.