Why oh Why???
Why oh why are we so afraid as a nation that people won’t like us or respect us, that we continually embarrass ourselves when the world is watching. Canadians are a bit like that kid in the boys change room who can’t bear himself in front of others; when it does happens, he’ll do something that makes others laugh at him and think they are laughing with him, and continue the shtick until, well 40 years later I am still scarred from that incident, but this isn’t about me.Canada just opened its doors to the sporting world for 17 days. For 17 days we watched in joy, disappointment, happiness, glee, and horror as athletes plied their trades against the world’s best. From Nodar to Joannie we cried and prayed. From the Big Carrot, Shaun White to Canada’s Gold medals in hockey, we watched in awe. There weren’t many “world records” broken in these games, yet we saw world class performances every day.
Canadian athletes turned in their greatest single games performance in history and in fact set a record for the most gold medals by a country in a single Winter games.
The world was watching and this was our stage. The mountains were in plain view, the reveler’s were as well, deep into the Pacific night. Plainly put this was a brilliant display of Canada and Canadian-ism.
Then came the closing ceremonies.
We knew the opening ceremonies were certainly going to be in tough. The last Olympic opening ceremonies were in Beijing where the Chinese spent 45 kagillion dollars to awe the world – Vancouver spent less and awed a lot less, but they were alright for most of us, capped off by incredible performances by Measha Bruegergosman and KD Lang. There were glitches and quite frankly it wasn’t my cup of tea all the way through, but it was palatable.
Then, like all great things it must come to a close and we watched the closing ceremonies like a train wreck. Keep in mind that closing ceremonies are always less glamourous and less captivating than opening ones, but they are also usually fun to watch.
As the announcers warned us, the pokes at Canadian-ism in fun were poking fun at every Canadian stereotype known. The table top hockey and monster-Mounties were god-awful, and worst of all was the constant stream of the Canadian-Hollywood set.
Let’s show the world our greatest – KD, Neil, Michael J. Fox….Errrrr, ummmm….Catherine O’Hara and Bill Shatner. Actually William Shatner’s I am Canadian rant was quite funny. By the time we got to O’Hara and Fox – wow, it was dead. Each of them could have been hilarious, but three of them was brutal overkill.
Now let’s throw our “greatest” bands at the world, Nicklecrap, Avril, some French artists, Alanis singing a dirge, Hedley. Wow isn’t we great. In case the committees aren’t aware, we have super groups in this country. Where were the Burton Cummings/Randy Bachman’s (He who lives in White Rock just down the highway), Where were Rush, Tom Cochrane, the Hip….There’s a lot of bands I put ahead of Avril and Hedley AND they are bands with a much greater global appeal.
I wasn’t asked for my opinion in either or any of the ceremonies, so that’s why I am giving it now!
We looked like a nation who doesn’t have an identity, a history or a past – which is sometime how we’re portrayed, and when you see an event like last night with the eyes of the world upon us, it’s no real wonder why people think we don’t have those things, because we never give them a reason to believe that we do have a history that is anything but a nation built by natives, stolen by white man and run by cartoon characters!
Come to think about it - that sounds far more realistic than it should be!
posted by G.M. Shier @ Monday, March 01, 2010
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