Before bill C-71 was enacted in 1998 tobacco companies could sponsor sporting events and teams. They pumped lots of money into motor sports in Canada prior to 1998 which helped us produce international stars. It's much tougher for Canadians now because the sponsorship money just isn't available like it is in other countries.
I'll just echo some of the other comments here and add my 2cents (3cents US?) as to why Canada isn't a player in global motorsports:
- Lack of tobacco money hurts. Not just bikes but cars. Think back if you can to the Rothman's Porsche 944 Turbo Cup series amongst many others...
- Limited riding season which is closely linked with:
- We're too small a damned market and I believe per capita we spend less on discressionary purchases (i remember reading a survey to this effect but since I have no source, don't quote me on it. A simple gander around the average garage compared to the US would support this claim though). Conversely, spain, portugual and most of europe, all of asia are HUGE bike markets with bajillions of people they can sell into. People who are just now moving up from pedal bikes to scooters, people moving from scooters to big bikes etc... The prestige of racing actually yeilds marketable benefits in these parts of the world.
- The mass use of motorcycles as a transport tool has led to a much broadly rooted "motorsports culture" in the aformentioned parts of the world. Hell, feeder series' and regionals get TV time and crowds in Europe. Ever try getting your friends, let alone strangers, to drive an hour to the track to watch you run? If you're successful then you've got better friends than I lol.
- Feeder series. Series like SOAR (which is awesome...free plug), feeds into a national series without big bucks behind it or significant advancement ops to the world stage.
- Follow the money and you'll generally see why Canada is behind the rest of the world in motorsports. In canada, you have to race because you want to, not because you want to make it a career...if you're one of the lucky ones (or 2's) who can do it for a living, then infinite kudos to you. But it's a money sport...if manufacturers didn't think it helped them in R&D or sales, they would all pull out. hell, maybe that's a good thing. Then the fields would be full of garagistas (indy teams) again, with close racing.
There's a couple more connected points but i'm off 2 the pub. Cheers.
Personally I think its mostly due to weather and lesser extent insurance. Australia has ~10mil people less then Canada and has had the same tobacco advertising rules as here.
Being able to ride ALL year round and actually afford to ride on the road ALL year round is a huge advantage. Being away from your sport for 6 months (winter) out of 12 is not going to get you to the top.
Another note id make is that most of the top Aussie riders (not sure about the rest of the field) started at a VERY young age on dirt bikes, something that doesnt seem too popular here. There was 3 motocross tracks within 30 min drive of where I lived in Aus and a lot of my friends when I was growing up were already racing when I was in primary school.
In Canada, unless your willing to migrate to the south each winter your not going to get to the world stage.
These are all good reasons as to why motorsports of any kind is not big in Canada, but there is a much bigger problem, it's the Canadian government, the people running this country are old farts who like a police state and a labour force nation, they are not interested in making their country better, free fun or give opportunities to anyone with talent, you can see this in every aspect of Canadian life, all that is done here is work work and majority of people barely have time to relax because they live pay check to pay check, because everything is waaay to expensive for what it is and people are under payed and kept in as modern day slaves. Did you know only 1.7 million people actually even make 100k a year out of the 34.5 some odd million people living in Canada, out of those that even make that 100k or more barely do well because they either have a big family or huge expenses.
This is why you will never see a handful of Canadian motorsport stars, at least living in Canada, also why you see so many Canadian Hollywood actors, not living in Canada.
My cousin is what someone like Jeremy Clarkson would say has "a God given talent" when it comes to racing, cars or bikes, the dude spent his whole life trying to find a way to become an F1 race car driver, and i mean he's been through it all, if he was living somewhere like Dubai, Italy-france , usa, dude would be a huge star right now, this guy can wheelie 50cc bikes, two hundreds, 250's, 600's even 1000's, drift bikes and cars, race them on tracks at eye slashing speeds on corners, you name it the kid is insane, dude has outran choppers on 250 dirt bikes lol but still he's alone and has no backing behind him, even trying to get sponsors is hard.
I told him to leave Canada and just go where he can be discovered, but he's got too many family responsibilities to leave them alone here, so he's still waiting to be discovered and trying the best he can from here.
i'm not exaggerating, a lot of dudes in this country have talent, but Canada has no opportunities for them, im not bragging because he's my cousin, but if he made it or if he got discovered he would be an Ayrton senna type situation, guy is fearless and has a gift, when ever he touches a bike or car its like those machines actually become him, its really hard to explain, i don't even see the passion or feel goosebumps when i watch professional racers on tv as i get seeing him do his thing, sucks how so many gifted and talented people all over Canada waist their talents and are riding around getting busted with criminal offenses and charges in this police state nation. no one is helping them.
