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Americans talking about Canada: Two very different views

March 1st, 2010 · 26 Comments

If anything proves that reality is subjective, this pair of articles from American reporters and their observations about the experience of the Olympics in Vancouver ought to do it.

Here’s one and here’s the other.

Categories: Uncategorized

  • Shane

    “I didn’t attend the ’36 Olympics, but I’ve seen the pictures. Swastikas everywhere”

    Wow…comparing the Maple Leaf to a swastika.

    That is one American who can’t stand that it isn’t all about America anymore.

  • Lesli

    The reason Gil didn’t see a single flag with just the Olympic rings on them is that the IOC doesn’t licence their mark that way. That’s why you won’t find an Olympic flag for sale in any flag shop in town, or anywhere in the world for that matter (unless it’s a knock-off). For the record.

  • Ian

    Brian Fawcett, one of our great BC writers, says it better than I can. http://www.dooneyscafe.com/archives/2088

  • http://allaboutcities.ca WW

    I agree with the main points of both — that people on the streets welcomed visitors from all over the world and were generally good natured. And, I agree that there could have been and should have been more attention paid to global athletes on the streets and in the media. NBC did a better job of showcasing not just their own country’s athletes than CTV at the media side.

    The 1936 references in the first article were unfortunate, because many of his other points were valid.

  • MPM

    Classic that an American from Texas no less is critical of us because of too much patriotism. Have a look in the mirror. In fact, American Olympic broadcasts typically barely show anyone other than Americans.

  • Booge

    “One thing I never saw: a simple flag or shirt with the five Olympic rings. Not anywhere. After 15 Olympics, that was a first.”

    Yep! The maple Leaf kicked the IOC’s butt! Good on us.

  • http://www.bluecamas.ca Dave

    I also think that they both have points.

    The over-the-top patriotism seemed to me to be exemplified by the rude fans chanting “we want USA” before the Slovakia game was finished. The Slovaks had played a great defensive game and it almost made me glad to see them claw their way back to make it a contest down to the last second.

    But also, the pure joy… after watching Olympics since Montreal it seemed to me that good efforts and near misses was the Canadian fate … but now… more Gold Medal winners than ever before, and what wonderful winners… Maele Ricker’s giggles, Alex Bilodeau and his brother, Jon Montgomery and his beer!

    (btw – The Tyee photo page has a nice shot of a knitted Olympic rings banner downtown. Slightly modified (ahem), but the rings nevertheless!)

  • Al

    I love sports, love our athletes (as athletes, not gods), and love competition. If the Olympics were downsized about 75% I would love it as an event a lot more. It seems to be about real estate, retail, Coca Cola, Visa, Nationalism….and then, at the end….competition. I think the Olympics are one of the many great sporting events (try watching other sports Olympics groupies!) but has simply lost its focus. Oh, and BC is a great place but “the Best Place on Earth”? Hubris, plain hubris.

  • spartikus

    The over-the-top patriotism seemed to me to be exemplified by the rude fans chanting “we want USA” before the Slovakia game was finished.

    They did the same thing in the Russia game. It was rude and I was put off by it, but I’m not sure it was a result of misguided patriotism. More like they held an international tournament and a rowdy NHL crowd turned up. Such chants are de rigueur during the Stanley Cup, especially in Vancouver (those rare times the Canucks make a deep run).

  • Hoarse Whisperer

    That chant of “we want USA”—very understandable. They spanked us in that lead-up game, so we needed to take care of some business.

    It all seems like a dream now. A great dream.

  • Joseph Jones

    Stephen Hume (Vancouver Sun, 1 Mar 2010, D2) has conjectured that the torch relay “galvanized this response … a defining national moment.”

    The torch relay originated in fascist promotion of nationalism. Why did Canada spend $25 million on the 2010 torch relay?

    Hume sees Canada “generating confidence and self-esteem.” I see a nation that has taken a sharp turn toward using its peacemakers to spew bullets in Afghanistan.

  • Hoarse Whisperer

    http://www.slate.com/id/2244692/

    A Canadian perspective, in Slate.

  • http://www.theyorkshirelad.ca/13swingcity/swing.city.html Urbanismo

    FOURTEEN GOLDS . . . Good show Canada . . . you own the podium!

  • Bill Lee

    Hail Victory! Heil Harper.
    What did you think Sieg Heil meant?

    It is a training for war against nations, much more obvious in the pentathalon and decathalon.

    There were far too many Canadian flags about rather than an international range. Not unexpected given the low biases of the morlocks. Even the hotels displayed other flags than the Maple Leaf and they weren’t called unpatriotic.

    Adam Gopnik, one of the New Yorker writers, blogs a bit about this.

    http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2010/03/gold.html

  • Bill Bargeman

    Yes, there was a public display of “true patriot love” the likes of which I’ve never seen in the 40 years since I immigrated from the States. And coming from the States I felt the potential for some discomfort at 150,000 people all wearing red and white singing the national anthem. But this was about hockey and other serious sports such as curling, ice dance and skating backwards over the finish line. Our heroes are young, smiling, tearful, beer guzzling, cigar smoking winning athletes; friendly, helpful volunteers and restrained cops. Some Americans might confuse this for love of an imagined “master race” or “leader for the free world”, but, as the wonderful closing ceremonies pointed out, we love being Canadian and will never take ourselves too seriously.

  • Bill Bargeman

    I should read all posts before I enthusiastically submit. I participated in the opening protest and at two demos in support of the tent city. I agree will Joe Jones that Harper and company would love to see a much more American Canada where peacekeeping and being honest brokers is replaced by simplistic military action. Harper and Campbell will no doubt grab hold of this love and sense of unity and use it to smooth the way to further dismantling the very fabric that has woven us together in the first place. I trust we can see through that.

  • Bill Lee

    Quick comments found by the anglo CBC on end of Games, and last hockey game: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2010/03/01/vancouver-2010-quotes.html

    Now on to the World Cup of Hockey in Delhi.
    (Hockey every where else is on the grass as you can see many nights of the year at Livingston and Hamber artificial grass sadly. Canadian Hockey is ice-hockey, and Canadian Bacon is back-bacon.

    But it’s 100 days to the real city event. The World Cup of Football (sometimes called soccer)
    Time differences won’t be brutal though. See tabs and local Vancouver time options at http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/kostage.html

    And then the World Cup of Rugby in late summer 2010 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Women's_Rugby_World_Cup

    And of course in July, everything stops for the TdF, and sometimes the Giro d’Italia.
    I wa s suprised by the pre-eminent Quebec columnist for La Presse, Pierre Foglia, was here for a full month blogging and living out on Kingsway to cover the Worst.Games.Ever, and only rode a bike once and that a rental. Despite his time in Taiwan, he took some time finding good Chinese food.

    And one wag here said that the games will be like paying for the yacht so Paris Hilton can have a party. It turns out she was being sponsored in Rio fo r the carnival. Darn those lunar calendars and the Olympic schedules.

  • Dee

    I’m proudest of the fact that, now only a few days later, most of the Maple Leaf flags have been folded up with care and put away in a cedar lined drawer, no longer flapping around on our cars or balconys (a few exceptions). I would like to think we know when to show some pride without flaunting it all the time. I’m personally proudest of the small personal moments that made such a difference to the visitors, and while I wasn’t able to do much myself (hey, I stopped whining for two weeks) our great volunteers need to be thanked for representing us so well as a nation (not that I believe in nations, but that’s another topic).

  • Shane

    A response to the Nazi accusation from Cam Batley of CanWest news service… http://www.kelowna.com/2010/03/02/its-1936-all-over-again-an-american-sports-columnist-gets-a-bizarre-nazi-flashback-in-vancouver/

  • david hadaway

    They are both true. There was incompetence and success. Waste and investment. Jingoism and internationalism.Excitement and boredom. Beauty and banality. Weather that was a fiasco on Cypress saved Vancouver. It would be quite easy to go right through the games seeing only one and not the other.

    If you can meet with triumph and disaster
    And treat those two imposters just the same
    …..
    Yours is the Earth, you’ll be a world class city
    And – which is more – you’ll maybe have some fun!

  • Mick

    The author of the nazi article later apologized for it after getting a ridiculous number of angry calls and emails. Attempting to find a link.

  • Mick

    http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/03/01/2006364/dont-let-the-games-message-be.html

  • spartikus

    Bit of a back-handed apology, but whatever. Anyway, hasn’t he heard of Godwin’s Law?

  • http://www.tomhawthorn.blogspot.com Tom Hawthorn

    Have you all gone mad?

    How can anyone compare the swastika at the 1936 Berlin Games to the maple leaf in Vancouver in 2010?

    The swastika was the emblem of the Nazi Party and its use was mandated by the state. Hitler saw the Olympics as a grand opportunity to showcase the glories of fascism, Naziism and the superiority of the German (Aryan) people. Jews, gays, the handicapped, communists, socialists and trade unionists were already being suppressed by the German state, whose crimes then and after have been well documented.

    The waving of the maple leaf in Vancouver was an expression by the citizenry. We are a nation unlike any other with two official languages and an identity that shifts ever slightly with our welcome of each new arrival.

    Canadian nationalism is an inward expression. It is about how we feel about ourselves. It is, in many ways, an abstract construction: We are not them, or them, or them, and we’re no longer quite what we were when we left wherever to come here. We’re something else.

    In Vancouver, it found expression in the wearing or red and white and the waving of our flag. (Created by a committee, approved by Parliament, not expressing any superiority, or inferiority, to any other land.)

    Another thing. We do not impose our Canadian nationalism on others. Whatever the outcome of our role in Afghanistan, that poor country will not be an outpost of the Canadian empire. We will not annex the Sudetenland, or invade tiny Caribbean island nations that flirt with ideologies not to our liking. Though if the Turks and Caicos want to join Confederation, I’m all for it.

    In many ways, British Columbia is an immature place, no better expressed than by the premier’s manic behaviour during the Games. The mayor wearing a hockey sweater at the Closing Ceremony when all others were in suits shows how jejune — and insecure — our political culture remains. (And don’t get me started on the lack of French in the ceremonies. This is an officially bilingual nation, sharing with the Olympics two languages, and it was ridiculous to have so little French. We all know what the response would have been had this been in Quebec City and entirely in French.)

    Anyone who spent any time downtown saw flags from many nations, not to mention the legions of Russians in their interesting official garb. It was clear that this was an international event attended by a lot of Canadians expressing a new-found boisterousness. But, really, it was harmless. And we’ll all soon be back to riding the bus, avoiding eye contact and listening to our iPods.

    Finally, to be lectured about excessive displays of nationalism by an American, and a Texan to boot, is highly amusing.

    Gil LeBreton is an idjit.

  • Gloria

    French, was not the first language in Canada, nor were they the first citizens of Canada. The Aboriginal people were the first Canadians, their languages were the first spoken in Canada. The rest of us are the interlopers. BC, is not a French speaking province. People were saying, the opening ceremonies dragged, because of the time it took to speak the dual languages. Some out of country people became, restless and bored. The, French, from Quebec, want their own athletes, to be separate from the rest of Canada’s athletes. Quebec says, they win most of the Canadian medals, and resent their medals being counted as, Canadian medals. Quebec, would also like to separated from, the rest of Canada. There are rumors of, Western Canada, wanting to separate, from Eastern Canada. And, round and round she goes, where it stops, no-one knows.

  • Derek Weiss

    Some more on this from Jeff Lee, including a personal letter of apology to him from Gil:

    http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/insideolympics/default.aspx