It was July 2002 when the GSG was out at the World Inline Hockey Championship in Spruce Grove, AB when boys from out East realized the influence Copey had in Western Canada. Seeing a tin of skoal out there was like spotting a kangaroo, apart from the next generation chewers "testing the water" so to speak...but Copenhagen was everywhere. Out West Copey is what you graduate to after mastering the realm of Skoal flavours, or, in my case, working on the gag-reflex I get from smelling Cherry Skoal. Cope's a step up in the West though...

Over in Ottawa it's the reverse. Tins of Skoal this time of year are gloriously displayed in the form of Christmas trees, Stanley cups, sombreros, you name it. It would so appear Skoal has become the preferred method of rest and relaxation in central Canada and so catching a glimpse of a tin of Cope is not too common.

In Australia, it's neither...they discontinued chew because they "reckoned it gives you cancer of the mouth". The lady that answered my inquirey was obviously oblivious to the irony of her statement as I stared in disbelief at her, the owner of a tobacco store, standing in front of a wall full of cartons of cigarettes...but chew is bad for you...I tell ya, the direction of the toilet flush isn't the only backwards thing down here. But back to the issue at hand...

What could possibly be the reason for this cultural division? Are there protestors or something standing in the middle of Saskatchewan telling the Skoal trucks to turn around and head back to where they came from? Is there some diehard Calgarian in Ottawa chewing 10,000 tins of copey a day leaving none for the rest of the East? Could it be that the West is seen through a bit of a "redneck" stereotype and so the magic of Copenhagen lets everyone know where you stand? Maybe the flavours just don't do it for us out West like they do over in the East. Who knows...

Kerrzy