Figure skater’s becoming a Canadian highlights our hypocrisy

Congratulations and welcome to our newest Canadian, Piper Gilles.

It's always great to greet someone new to the family -- especially somebody who wants to be part of it. And it's great to see the young figure skater welcomed with open arms when, as reported in the Toronto Star, she became a Canadian citizen on Tuesday after a two-year fight to become one of us. Gilles was toasted on Twitter by figure skating fans, Olympic athletes and even her Member of Parliament in the online equivalent of a group hug.

Everybody was happy for her and proud that she had chosen us. And so they should be.

Thanks to getting her citizenship, the American-born skater, who has lived in Toronto since 2011, is free to compete with partner Paul Poirier at the Canadian championships and possibly represent Canada at the Sochi Olympics in February.

Nobody welcomes somebody to the family the way Canadians can. Like Sally Field, we're thrilled to know that they really, really like us.

But all this outpouring of joy does stand out in sharp contrast to the reaction of Canadians when one of our athletes decides to apply for citizenship elsewhere. Remember the sheer vitriol hurled at boxer Lennox Lewis when he decided that his best career move was to become a British citizen? Or at tennis player Greg Rusedski when he took the same route because of what he said was a lack of support here?

And poor Patrick Chan's ears are still ringing from the abuse he took after just suggesting that he might have been better off competing for China than for Canada.

Being a nation of puckheads, we saved our most acidic response for Brett Hull after he chose the U.S. Olympic hockey team over Team Canada -- a team that had rejected him, by the way.

Some might describe the response to those three as, well, un-Canadian. But, sadly, it was very Canadian. At times we can be a very petty lot.

We can also be a tad hypocritical. When former Toronto Raptors forward Matt Bonner tried to become a Canadian so he could play on our national basketball team there was much joy in the land. We were more than happy to accept him, even if he was doing exactly the same thing that led us to vilify the likes of Lewis, Rusedski and Hull.

Those guys left for the same reasons that Gilles left her native country: It's a good career move.

We can't have it both ways. If we welcome a Piper Gilles when she chooses to become a Canadian and compete under our flag because it's a good career move, we shouldn't be hauling out the torches and pitchforks when a Canadian athlete does the same thing.