Proud moments for Canada!

[Nebula]

Way to turn your nose up at a mod, gramma. Clearly this thread is about the Olympics and the "proud moments" in them.

[Liberty and Truth]

Way to turn your nose up at a mod, gramma. Clearly this thread is about the Olympics and the "proud moments" in them.

yup - quickest route to a ban hammer.

[MAPearce]

HE SCORRRRRRRRRRRRRS

Aaaaahhh! what a relief that was.I'm still smilling...and a little hung over!

[Nebula]

I think the biggest thing I'm proud of is the amount of pride we showed. It was cool to see a sea of red at hockey games and curling games and in Whistler.

[grammafreddy]

Okay, I'll play nice.

I was pretty proud of Joannie.

I was pretty proud of all that red serge, too.

And I was even proud when I heard "The Maple Leaf Forever".

Is that better?

[grammafreddy]

I think the biggest thing I'm proud of is the amount of pride we showed. It was cool to see a sea of red at hockey games and curling games and in Whistler.

I gotta admit - I didn't think Canadians had that in them any more.

[MAPearce]

Yeah, the red and white was everywhere for every event.I think this pride is going to last a very long time.A great time to be Canadian.
(except maybe not for GF)

[grammafreddy]

Yeah, the red and white was everywhere for every event.I think this pride is going to last a very long time.A great time to be Canadian.
(except maybe not for GF)

Why would you say that? Any time is a great time to be a Canadian. Any time is a great time to celebrate our country. Any time is a good time to fly our flag proudly. (although I take great exception to the fact that the IOC changed our nation's flag to suit themselves and their size preferences - or did any of you even notice that?)

[Poindexter]

The humor in the closing ceremony was a perfect way to demonstrate how Canadians can laugh at themselves. It showed the rest of the world that National pride doesn't come from making fun of others, in Canada it comes from making fun of ourselves.

[MAPearce]

Well GF,I can read and have read the comments on this thread,including yours,and I must sa.....Oh never mind.WOOOOHOOOO!!! What a great two weeks of sport and national pride!

[Nebula]

An excellent article from the L.A. Times

Vancouver's closing ceremony is nice . . . and quirky
The 2010 Winter Games say farewell with self-effacing humor, kitsch and honest-to-goodness niceness that reflect a genuine success for Canada.
Chris Erskine

March 1, 2010

From Vancouver, Canada

This ebullient, stone-washed city put on a roaring grand finale Sunday night, a sparkling celebration marked with fireworks, flames and wedding-day smiles.

Were they happy here? Only in a Paris-is-liberated, hats-and-heels-in-the-air sort of way. Guess they like their hockey here.

So peace out, Vancouver. Sweeter than syrup, you people.

Sunday's closing ceremony was a long, over-the-top farewell for a nation of people who seem incapable of booing.

Maybe they were on their best behavior for the guests, but you usually can't fake this kind of stuff. Graciousness is their default mode here. For the last two weeks, beaming has been a way of life. In a nod to the local vernacular, let me just say this is the nicest city I've ever been.

In truth, Sunday's closing ceremony started off a little stiff, after a very fun spoof about the malfunctioning torch. The program was soon full of speeches, protocol and anthems. In the audience, we're up, we're down -- like church.

Then the Moscow State Chamber Choir comes out. No laughs there either.

The show didn't really catch fire till Neil Young showed up singing, and then there was no stopping things.

"My name is Bill and I'm proud to be a Canadian," William Shatner said to roars. "My pride is as immense as this majestic country."

It didn't hurt that they had won that little hockey medal hours before, a sport they seem to enjoy.

Hockey means so much to them here, probably too much. To borrow from Canada's own Margaret Atwood, hockey is "the song that forces men to leap overboard in squadrons."

Seriously, I'm worried for these people. They are so happy right now, they might forget to eat. Every Canadian pond glowed gold Sunday night -- from Nova Scotia to the Yukon.

And then there was this ceremony. Was there anyone left in the rest of Canada? At times, there seemed to be more people on the dance floor than in the stands.

There is so much that can go wrong at an event like this. There are 360 rigging points in the ceiling, 60 electric winches that bring things up and down, a dozen dancing canoes. Just one canoe goes flying the wrong way and you have yourself an international incident.

But nothing seemed to go very wrong here Sunday.

Much of it was a fever dream of Canadian quirks and cultural references -- beavers and Mounties, hockey pucks, moose and flying maple leaves. Let me assure you that when you get all those elements under one roof, you can't really miss.

By the way, did you know Canada once had 6 million beavers? Says right here in the media guide. I throw that out there because I'll probably never get another chance to write "6 million beavers."

Even without beavers, Sunday's show would've been kitschy, fun, rocked-out, zany -- qualities Canadians are rarely known for.

In a strobe-lighted, special effects-laden world, you sometimes get numbed to the flashes and explosions. But not in BC Place on Sunday night. The 2 1/2 -hour celebration seemed just right. Well, maybe "right" isn't the word. How about "well-deserved"?

Nickelback performed. So did Avril Lavigne and Alanis Morissette. And some princess-in-waiting by the name of Marie-Mai, who is described as "a force to be reckoned with on Quebec's cultural landscape."

I can neither confirm nor deny this. I just pass along what I hear.

In the end, this is a more mirthful place than it gets credit for. Poked a lot of fun at these cowpokes the last two weeks, and they bounced back up off the canvas smiling, most of them anyway.

I'll never forget when I kidded them in print about being too friendly and several e-mailed to apologize. That's a pretty cool souvenir right there. Better than any overhyped red mittens.

I will miss my morning run through Stanley Park almost as much as the fresh seafood and the hearty handshakes. This is one of those Pacific Northwest locales where the air seems to come straight from the trees, not filtered through cars, no middle man, no filler.

So pristine, this Vancouver -- so backward and podunky -- that it doesn't even have a freeway running through it. In fact, I've gone three weeks without seeing a freeway. You have no idea what that is like till you experience it firsthand.

On Monday, this place will feel like a collapsed umbrella. They'll rip down the Olympic netting, they'll repaint all the buses. They can all go back to chasing moose out of the backward.

Then a great raging debate will begin: Was this Winter Olympics worth it, a public debt that may last decades?

Yes, every penny.

In all the important ways, Canada, you owned the podium.

[westsidebud]

*removed - Jennylives

[westsidebud]

great post nebula thanks for sharing

[Bubalouie]

Yes , thanks Nebula.........that was cool.........

[Liberty and Truth]

I was saddened when Neil came on and the flame went out, but I managed to keep it together right through the closing ceremonies, until the final "I believe" video ran after Brian Williams signed off for the last time, and it finally hit me - the games are over - and I lost it (my wife had already lost it earlier when Joannie came out with the flag). The high five that Nikki Yanofsky gives Annie Villeneuve at the end of this video just summed it up perfectly - French and English Canadians working together hand in hand - no politics - just passion for a shared goal - to give our generation an experience we'll never ever forget - that is my promise to everyone who worked so hard to give us this tremendous and beautiful gift of treasured memories and collective experience.

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/video/index.h ... 23909e09ab