This will either make me some new friends or some new enemies. It could also have no effect on any of you at all.
In any event, I'm starting the charge on this. With the Western Canada Summer Games starting on Friday, it's time to Bring Back the Dub.
The Dub, in this case, is the W which is missing from our team name. Forever and a day, we were once known as Team NWT. Not anymore as we now have the moniker of Team NT. Sure, it still fits but it doesn't have the same ring to it. We've always been known as Team NWT and that's how people I talk to still refer to our home and native territory.
Now, to paraphrase Chris Williams, we are but a postal designation.
NNSL file photo
This isn't some sort of silly movement like the proposal to change the name of the territory in 1996, which very nearly got us Bob. We need to bring back the letter which everyone knows and loves. We need to bring back our beloved W.
Almost every single territorial sport organization in the territory still utilizes NWT in its name: NWT Softball, Hockey NWT, NWT Soccer, NWT Wrestling to name a few. The only organization I can think of that doesn't have the NWT designation is Badminton NT. That's because they went in line with what Badminton Canada decided for its provinces and territories: the two-letter designation.
We still call our legislative body the GNWT, not the GNT. We still call it NWT Pride. We still call it the NWT Association of Communities. Why does Team NT have to be different?
Williams had it right when he gently called out the powers that be in NWT sport (yes, that was intentional) when he won Senior Male Athlete of the Year at the Sport North Awards earlier this year. He told the audience gathered that he was an athlete, not a postal designation. He said the NWT is how we're known when we travel across the country to compete.
He even came up with the best reasoning why the W should be put back in there:
“As far as I'm concerned, the W in there means winner.”
Top that because I can't and I'm usually good with a smart-a** comment or two. Those seniors are wise folks, aren't they?
He's absolutely right. We were always known as Team NWT and that's how I still refer to it. You won't believe the number of times I have to change my copy whenever I write about Team NT forgetting that we follow the Canada Post guidelines of team identification.
I even have my backers on this issue. I had a brief chat with Jordee Reid of the Aboriginal Sports Circle of the NWT (yes, EN-DOUBLEU-TEE and not NT) a couple of weeks ago. She's the chef de mission for our delegation heading to the 2020 North American Indigenous Games next year and I asked her whether the team we're sending is Team NWT or Team NT.
She had a twinge of resignation in her voice when she told me it would be Team NT. Ugh.
I off-handedly said to her that we should “bring back the dub”. She told me that sounded like a great idea for a hashtag. And so in honour of Jordee Reid, I make it so.
I give you permission and encourage you to use the hashtag #BringBackTheDub whenever and wherever you can. What I don't want is for this to become a re-hash of the 1996 debacle, but the sport community is a very large and vocal group. If enough people get behind this, we can affect change for the better. Good grief, I sound like a community organizer now.
In any event, the movement begins today. #BringBackTheDub.