Be-Leaf it or not, fan hitchhiking from Montreal to Winnipeg
Clancy McNamara is no ordinary Toronto Maple Leafs fan.
He is so pumped up about the team’s chances this season, he is hitchhiking from Montreal to Winnipeg for the Leafs’ season opener Wednesday against the Jets.
Along the way, he is hoping to collect enough anecdotes from other long-suffering members of Leafs Nation to eventually cobble together a podcast of his road travels.
He set out last Friday morning from his mother’s home in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, confident his blue Leafs jersey — signed by the likes of Wendel Clark and Doug Gilmour — will not deter Quebec motorists from ignoring him, especially in Montreal, home of the bleu-blanc-rouge.
“If by lunchtime I’m still standing on (St-Jean Boulevard), maybe I’ll switch it up and wear something red,” McNamara said with a laugh.
“The reason I’m hitchhiking instead of taking a bus is to meet people, and for the experience.”
McNamara, 42, grew up in Montreal but now calls Burlington, Ont., home. He moved to Toronto when he was 15 and quickly became a diehard Leafs fan. Clark was his favourite player — and still is — but McNamara says this year’s club promises to be the best in recent memory, led by young guns Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander.
“I’m really excited about the season. With all the young talent — not just in Toronto, but also in Winnipeg and Edmonton — hockey is back in Canada,” he said.
McNamara said he still has a soft spot for the Canadiens, his secondfavourite team: “I remember Guy Lafleur. I loved them, but I was impressionable as a teenager, so I fell in love with Clark and Gilmour (after I moved to Toronto).
“There were no fancy cable TV packages back then either, so all I could watch was Buffalo or Toronto games.”
He’s hitchhiked many times before, once from Whistler, B.C., to Toronto in 1999. He also put his thumb out in India, Asia and the U.K.
McNamara is not worried by the prospect he’ll meet some hostile Leaf haters along the way.
“I’m not afraid of physical violence,” he said. “I think we’re all past that. But some good-natured jabbing back and forth is fun.”