Playgrounds and Podiums: Does Canada Need a Sport System?

The Canadian Sport Policy (CSP) will be renewed in 2023 and will provide direction for the federal and provincial and territorial governments for the next decade. The Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC) is charged with leading cross-country consultations for renewal of the CSP.

According to a concept paper prepared by SIRC,

Sport in Canada needs a policy to both align the activities of the many organizations making up the sport system, and perhaps more important, to create a shared vision for its future.

There are important assumptions implicated in just this short statement. One assumption is that there is such a thing as “the sport system.” Another assumption is that the various and varied activities of the many diverse organizations associated with sports can and should be aligned. Yet another assumption is that, should we accept that there is such a thing as the sport system, creating “a shared vision for its future” is possible and would be a positive project. And finally, there is the assumption that if we are to have a sport policy as Canadians, these are the specific ways in which it should be directed.

These are philosophical questions and appropriate material for the philosophy of sport to wrestle with. This research project in the philosophy of sport investigates the role played by the model of Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) in the governance and delivery of youth sport in Canada in past iterations of the CSP and makes recommendations for the role it should play going forward.