Nathan Peardon has passion, and he’s not afraid to show it. Passion for the Montreal Canadiens, that is.
The hockey team’s official website held a contest this summer, titled ‘Your Passion is Showing,’ to find out who the biggest ‘Habs’ fan is. After a lengthy search, St. Thomas University’s Nathan Peardon and his brother Nick were ultimately crowned the winner.
“Me and my twin brother have literally been Habs fans since birth. Our father grew up a huge Habs fans, and he kind of passed the torch to us. The year we were born, 1993, was the last cup win by the Habs,” Peardon said.
Nathan and Nick grew up in a small town in P.E.I., called Montague. Like thousands of other Canadians, they became huge hockey fans at an early age, but more specifically Montreal Canadiens fans. They didn’t have the financial means growing up to afford hockey, so instead they put all of their time and effort into the Canadiens.
“Being a Habs fan for almost 19 years, it was kind of cool to watch the team as they developed, see the rookies eventually turn pro. We have been with the team through so much, winning ways and losing ways, no bandwagon jumping on our end.”
Anyone in Canada could enter, and the winner received two tickets to the season opener game. Nathan and Nick thought this was the perfect opportunity to show everyone how much the Habs mean to them.
In Nathan and Nick’s video, they showcase their shrine to the Habs, which is their bedroom. From the sign on the door that says “Locker Room, Habs Fans only” to all their memorabilia inside. Everything in the room has the Habs logo emblazoned on it.
“Even the tacks are red, white and blue to match the colors of the team… The Piece de Resistance is the flag that was sent to us by the Canadiens. It’s signed by some of the Habs greats including Guy Lafleur and Patrick Roy,” Peardon said.
After they submitted the video, they were selected to be part of the final 18 contestants. From then on it was a round robin decided by votes, until the final two met up in the deciding match.
“We were lucky enough to make the final, and in the last round the winner was decided by five players on the team, Ryan White, Yannick Weber, David Desharnais, Lars Eller and Travis Moen. They voted on who they thought should win, and the ending result was three to two in our favor,” Peardon said.
“Throughout the voting rounds we bombarded family, friends, Facebook and Twitter to obtain votes. So I would love to thank anyone including the New Hot 105.5, local radio station back home. It’s very much appreciated.”
The winning video can be found on Youtube under ‘Your Passion is Showing’.
