Heritage Minister James Moore has made his allegiance clear in one of the country's most politically divisive debates -- he's declared the Vancouver Canucks are Canada's team during this year's NHL playoffs, not the Montreal Canadiens.

"The Canucks are Canada's team in these playoffs. Plus, they're wearing those handsome Canadian Alliance-esque blue/green jerseys" the B.C. MP wrote in a weekend post on Twitter.

But as anyone who has read Roch Carrier's "The Hockey Sweater" knows, throwing your support behind a Canadian hockey team is no small matter, and is instead the answer to the single most existential question of what it means to be Canadian.

And for the heritage minister of a government that is often criticized for not understanding Quebec to choose the Vancouver Canucks, the western team, an English team -- well, that takes a steel backbone or more likely, a touch of TIM (Twitter Inflected Madness – other high-profile victims include Lindsay Lohan, Courtney Love, Jose Canseco.)

Liberal MP Justin Trudeau was clearly unimpressed, tweeting at Moore Monday, "You don't have to like the Habs, but you could show a little more respect."

As expected, the blogsphere had a few things to say about Moore's choice.

TV writer David McGrath said the tweet "goes beyond tone deafness, into a very much darker corner of the current political climate" on a post on his blog. He argued in the 1,500 word post that Moore was intentionally divisive, splitting the country into an "us" verse "them."

"Us doesn't include the CBC, artistic elites, union people, city dwellers -- and Quebec. In a fractious, minority parliament situation, divide & conquer, shore up your base & cherry pick some ridings here and there might be the only way toward stability. But it's killing the country. Killing it," he wrote.

"Was trying to have fun. Relax, lighten up. Geez," Moore wrote in response.

On Twitter, Waterloo, Ont. researcher Joseph F. Turcotte called out the Tory minister saying "Really? Making the playoffs political?"

Moore responded to Turcotte on Twitter, also telling him to "lighten up."