Monday, March 1, 2010

Great Day for Canadians- Not so Much for Sovereignists..

Sunday's overtime goal by Sydney Crosby, sealing Canada's victory over the United States for international Hockey's symbol of world supremacy, the Olympic gold medal, was for myself a breathtakingly memorable experience, as I assume it was for most of you reading this column.

By the way the term  'Golden Goal" is usually reserved as a soccer reference, but Wikipedia has within hours of Sydney Crosby's goal already updated and redefined the the reference to include his goal against the Americans. Cool!

For me and my family we shared the explosive moment together in our den, three generations holding our collective breath, just like your family or friends!

French/ English, did you really care who of scored the the winning goal for us?

I hope you enjoyed the moment, it was glorious! It doesn't happen often in a lifetime and I hope you remember to cherish the moment. The last time I felt this way was when Paul Henderson scored that amazing goal over the Soviets to seal Canada's victory in the 1972 series. I think Crosby's goal will go down in Canadian sports history as one that is just as important.
In thirty years from now, most every Canadian will easily remember where he or she was when the goal was scored. Trust me, I remember Henderson's goal like it was yesterday.

One of the most interesting signs was out out of Kandahar in Afghanistan where Canada's military hoisted a sign that said;
"CANADA/USA, BROTHERS IN ARMS- NOT ON THE ICE.

Nations go through ups and downs, it's hard not to think of Chile and Haiti in our moment of triumph, but our achievement at these Olympics is something valued, something shared and something to be remembered as a collective accomplishment.

For Anglophone and Francophones who love this country, we probably lived the proudest moments of our lives these past two weeks.

For those Quebeckers who hate Canada, I am truly sorry for your pain.

I am sorry you can't feel the elation we feel as a country.
I am sorry you can't feel the pride of accomplishment as a nation.
I am sorry that the Canadian flag hoisted to the top of the podium causes you such distress.
I am sorry that when you see Francophones bursting with pride and hauling around the Canadian flag, it makes you feel that they are traitors.
I'm sorry that you will never live this dream. For you and those who share your fantasy of a Quebec team at the Olympics, it's just never going to happen....

For those of us who were elated, I'd like you to share your moment of triumph when we scored our golden goal with our readers;

Where were you and with whom?
What was it like?

Please comment, it will contribute to our joy!!!

By the way here's an inspiring video aired on CTV just before signing off on the Olympics. I can't think of a more perfect homage to our bilingual Canadian Olympic success story. Enjoy!


 

6 comments:

  1. I had it with those fools. Read it here:

    http://www.vigile.net/Mon-bilan-des-JO-de-Vancouver

    The writer suggests that Francophones contributes 50% of medal haul. I correct it, I say 30% only. And what the next comments are? They are tweaking the numbers to work for their cause. One buffoon even suggests that Mike Anderson is a Francophone.

    Really, really delusional. Even if Anderson was a Francophone, what do he and Toews have anything with "Equipe Quebec"? They are not even Quebecer!

    Aaarrgghhh...!!!

    Go ahead, go there and make your comment.

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  2. Whoops... Mea culpa. They mean Jasey-Jay Anderson. A Quebecer from Mont-Tremblant.

    But my opinion stands. They are delusional. I checked Jasey-Jay's website and it is almost completely in English. And that makes him a Francophone, right?

    Just like Luongo, all Quebec-born who can speak French and all non-Quebecer Francophones athletes are claimed to be potential athletes for independent Quebec.

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  3. I was cheering for the USA and I'm not a Quebec sovereignist.

    This cheering had nothing to do with "nationalism" or "patriotism". That was just because I prefer the blue color and I like to cheer for the underdog as well and I prefered the players of the American team.

    Regards,

    Tym Machine

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  4. "Really, really delusional. Even if Anderson was a Francophone, what do he and Toews have anything with "Equipe Quebec"?"

    Jonathan Toews is a franco-manitobain and indeed that has nothing to do with "Equipe Québec" whatsoever.

    Shall we hope in Quebec for the return of the Nordiques instead of focusing on such issues. To me, this should be our no 1 priority in Quebec and around the league as well.

    Personnally, I am sick and tired of seeing NHL teams in markets that really don't care such as Phoenix, Florida, Nashville, Atlanta and what not. Let's bring those teams where it belongs in hockey Siberia such as Quebec and Winnipeg for instance even in Hartford and Hamilton as far as I am concerned.

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  5. I did enjoy the olympics thanks and I do love (english) Canada. We were happy for your success in hockey. After all, we've been sharing a country for some years now...

    '' I can't think of a more perfect homage to our bilingual Canadian Olympic success story.'' It's a joke right ??? or we don't live in the same country... Apparently not lol.

    In Canada we have a bilingual country where only one language is spoken and an unilingual province where two languages are spoken...

    Maybe you'll understand some day that we're bringing something to the country... but it's going to be to late since one way or another nobody will speak French in your country soon. or so few... like in the olympics.

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  6. "In Canada we have a bilingual country where only one language is spoken"

    What about Ontario and New Brunswick? There is plenty of French spoken in those provinces. In both provinces the rights of Francophones have been protected by law, while most of the rights of Quebec Anglophones have been stripped away.

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