Other way around. A lot of European and Asian countries have a professional basketball league. It's too simple a sport it's played everywhere. Hockey is only played in cold climates. Unless you count field hockey or the variations of roller hockey in Europe. But even with that Basketball is more widespread.
I think a large number of the immigrants to Canada have indeed accepted hockey as being a part of their culture. There is a reason that hockey on CBC is now announced in Punjabi and Mandarin along with English and French. There was a demand by those communities to have the game made more accessible to them, and CBC responded. Now these games are getting very high ratings.
Just as soccer will one day over-take baseball as a cultural institution in the USA, curling will overtake hockey in Canada. These things just take time.