Canada is a very small pond in every sport or arts, and people do bitch. It’s also small enough in every endeavour that it might be impossible to avoid the appearance of favoritism. When all Olympic team members basically come from one province everyone presumably knows everyone.
In general in the US, in academia and arts, I got the impression people thought “hey, you might be going somewhere. Let me hitch alone for a ride, give you a boost, that will help me long term. The pie is infinite and you might help me get a slice too.”
In Canada it’s much more “the pie is tiny, any slice you get is food taken out of my mouth, I’m going to guard all resources and it’s a zero sum game, so I’m going to freeze you out.” Also known as “crabs in a bucket.”