No big shocker that the National Hockey League’s Most Valuable Player — as per last year’s Hart Trophy balloting — would be Canadian born-and-bred Joe Thornton.

But suddenly, the Great White North is cornering the market on major-pro sports MVPs:

Don’t look now, but Canadians — as in Steve Nash of the NBA Suns, Justin Morneau of the AL Twins and Joe Thornton of the NHL Sharks — are reigning MVPs in three of the four major American pro sports.

It doesn’t figure to be four, though, unless the Chargers’ LaDainian Tomlinson makes a run for the border.

Quick, someone hide L.T.’s passport!

Is Canada breeding a class of super-athletes, intent on dominating North American sports? If so, I wonder how the legal proclamation of Quebecois as a “nation within Canada” fits in. Aside from the predictable call for a Team Quebec hockey team.