Canada's Gold...graciously

As many Canadians I've been watching the Olympics on one of the twenty channels it been on. I really hope that girl, and Alan Frew are getting a nickel every time that theme song is on. And of course like many I'm concerned about the weather. However we are only 4 days in and I'm already angry about stuff.



the opening ceremonies were awesome! So much of that display made me proud to be Canadian. It was nice to see BC Place as a focal point, after all I'm old enough to remember when it opened in 1986. The Expo '86 was a highlight of my childhood. A girl i work with was born in 1986 and i just threw up in my mouth a bit.



As Canadians we generally cheer for people to be fair, to try hard, and to give it their best. We hope that our Olympic heroes will win gold(or silver, or bronze) but we applaud everyone, we cheer sportsmanship, and we're happy to be there. So when Alexandre Bilodeau won gold I had a tear in my eye. When the final skier finished his run it was obvious to me(a guy that can't ski) that he's made an error, and that error may cost him a chance on the podium. It did, and the hometown crowd erupted.



Except for one hometown boy....Dale Begg-Smith.



For those of you that don't know who that is, he's the sulking cry baby from Australia that won Silver. He's also the defending gold medalist from 2006. He was also born and raised in B.C. He left Canada for Australia looking for time to work his business, and less training. I guess he didn't need that much considering that he won a gold in Italy in 2006. He became a multimillionaire with his annoying "pop-up" software. ( another reason to not be a fan of his) As the final scores came up he looked like he pissed. He didn't bring a flag up on the podium, he barely changed his expression. His coach said afterwards, "My own opinion is that probably Alex is not capable of 4.8 or a 4.9... because 5 is a perfect score" Hey douche bag you know who had a higher score when he won gold...Dale Begg-Smith. What kind of an asshole spouts off his mouth after the dude he coaches wins a silver medal. One of their 3 Winter gold medals is from a guy that is Canadian and you have the balls to complain? Is it because of how rich your aerial ski program is? Fuck you. I remember being very gracious when you wallaby eating, Fosters drinkers won a medal for Cricket in Sydney in 2000. Oh yeah, that's not a real sport. Was it Aussie rules football? I assume that this was only his coach(and roommate) that felt this way because if not then he not only gave up his citizenship, he gave up his heritage.



Protesters- man you really look like weaklings try to beat up superior athletes sponsors from behind masks.



French Canadians...



Apparently the perceived lack of french at the Olympics has upset some French-Canadians. They had a two page article about it La Presse, a french only newspaper distributed out of Montreal. Am I the only one seeing the irony that a french only paper is upset that part of the country isn't looking bilingual enough? Yeah...Quebec! That's what it's like for the rest of us Canadians to go to any other part of Quebec than Hull, or Montreal. They said that only 15% of the 25,000 volunteers spoke french. That's almost 4000 people. Did it mention how many of the other 21,000 people spoke other languages? Or do you only care what Mama et Papa Villenuve to be able to know where to eat. It's fuckin Vancouver asshole! You know that place with huge Asian and Indian populations. Even in Rejean Tremblay's article, he points out that 4 million Quebecois cannot read his own article. And having 4000 french speaking volunteers to represent one province isn't enough. You draw a distinct line in between Quebec and Canadian athletes , but are then offended when it happens with your language over 4000 kms away? Did Montreal take extra step to show the history of the west coast? (seriously I was 3) Will you be any less proud of Canadians from other provinces that win medals? Judging by the crowd at BC Place, screaming and singing the national anthem for Alex Bilodeau, are only proud he won. Some Quebec TV shows have the boules to ask whether bilingualism in Canada is just a facade?It is as important to the those on the west coast, as the west coast is to those in Quebec.



With Glowing Hearts