Former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau shrugged off then-president-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 cross-border political trash talk that labeled him the “governor” of the “Great State of Canada” during an appearance in a trailer for the CBC’s upcoming Rivals: The 4 Nations Face-Off documentary.
“He’s said better insults to me than that,” Trudeau says dismissively in the teaser for the feature doc about the Feb. 2025 Four Nations international ice hockey tournament that culminated with Team Canada defeating Team USA in the championship game. Trump appears in the film via archival footage from the Oval Office that has him declaring “I’d like to see Canada become our 51st state.”
“I felt like standing up for my country,” Chantal Kreviazuk, the Canadian Grammy-award winning singer, says in the documentary trailer about changing the lyrics to the “O Canada” anthem she performed at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament game at Boston’s TD Garden game after Trump’s “51st state” taunts.
The trailer illustrates how Trump goading Trudeau and Canada lit a fire under the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament with epic brawls on the ice and an “Elbows Up” movement of patriotic fervor among Canadians off the ice. Finnish and Swedish hockey teams also competed in the round robin competition, but it wasn’t long before the traditional North American hockey rivalry between Team Canada and Team USA dominated headlines.
“It wasn’t the Olympics, but it felt that big,” Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid, who scored the overtime goal that gave Team Canada bragging rights over its traditional North American ice hockey rival, says in the trailer. “You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game,” Justin Trudeau wrote on X after the historic tournament win.
Directed by Yon Motskin, the feature doc is produced by Blink49 Studios and offers behind-the-scenes access to the inaugural 7-game tournament, conversations with NHL players and Canadian and American commentators discussing the cultural and political impact of the 4 Nations sporting event.
The feature is executive produced by Motskin, P.K. Subban and Jennifer Dettman and was made with the cooperation of the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players’ Association. The doc will premiere Feb. 5 on the CBC’s main network and its CBC Gem streaming platform ahead of the Winter Olympics in Italy.
The premiere of Rivals: The 4 Nations Face-Off also follows the breakout success of another Canadian ice hockey project, Heated Rivalry, the popular gay hockey romance on Crave in Canada and HBO Max stateside.
Read the full article here
