Let the games begin ...

 So, Gretsky got to light the outside Olympic flame, but the Opening Ceremonies certainly had it's share of embarrassments!!  Right from the start when our Governor General - the Queen's representative in Canada - was led into the executive box and officially recognizing the crowd, there were empty seats all around her, people taking off coats and chatting behind her, and others still shuffling into their seats!  It looked disorganized and amateurish at best.  (Later we were told the empty seats belonged to the leaders of the First Nations - who were late - did someone forget to tell them what time to come???)

With the tragic death of the Georgian luge athlete earlier in the day fresh in everyone's minds the Ceremonies stumbled along ... and there certainly were stumbles!  But, I loved the opening of the snowboarder skiing down the gigantic snow-covered mountain and seemingly right into the Stadium through the Olympic rings - cool start.

Thank you, thank you K.D. Lang for that fantastic rendition of Leonard Cohen's  'Hallelujah'  it gave me goose bumps (but then, anything to do with Cohen does!!)


A reader's comment left on the cbc.ca website captured my feelings exactly ...

"Well ... what could have been more Canadian than that opening ceremony?

I found it understated and genuine, not garish and phony like Beijing. You had your athletes, of course, drunk politicians, overweight and washed up performers, gay fiddlers, people of all races and cultures, a lesbian in a man's suit singing Hallelujah, an opera singer with an almost unpronounceable name and, oh yeah, a fat guy telling what it means to be Canadian.

Only in this country would we be so content in our own identity as to experience technical difficulties during the lighting of the Olympic flame, laugh it off, fix it with duct tape and binder twine and carry on with a good chuckle.

These are the things that make Canadians unique in the world. We are who we are and we have nothing to prove to anyone. I could not be happier or prouder."

Hear, hear!!