The Vancouver 2010 Olympics Have Come And Gone And The City Begins To Return To Normal.

After seventeen days of events, competition and celebration Canada has come out on top with an Olympic record. Fourteen gold medals, more gold than any other country in the history of the Olympics, (so far) and we did it on home soil. Way to go Canada!

I think all Vancouverites should give themselves a pat on the back, not only did we all come together to help put on the games but we also got to share an incredible and unique Canadian experience.

Sure there was turmoil during the first week of the games due to the vandalism of protesters, who in my opinion failed miserably to get across any legitimate points that their protest could have presented to the world. Breaking windows to protest capitalism (isn’t the store owner going to have to buy more windows?) and blocking the streets to protest the closing down of the city is ironic but not in a ha ha way. To be honest it was pretty stupid.

Diplomacy along with calm speaking from intelligent informed leaders will always present a better case than hooligans will. While I do agree with some of the issues that protesters had regarding lack of housing and the wasteful use of billions of dollars I feel that their presentation of the cause was way off base. And I am sure they are getting just as much use out of the new SkyTrain infrastructure in Vancouver as the rest of us who enjoyed the games. With the good comes the bad and with the bad comes the good I guess it is just a simple matter of opinions.

However even after all of that Vancouver and Canada came together to kick ass and party like only Canadians know how!

Yes, I am still feeling quite patriotic and I hope the feeling lasts a long time. The connectedness and unity that we as Canadians felt during these 2010 games was enormous and the joy that we felt as we waved our flags and high fived every stranger we saw after the Canadian men’s gold medal win in hockey was a revelation of how powerful we are as a Canadian group and how connected we are as a people.

Congratulations Canada you showed the world what it means to be Canadian and believe it or not I think the world noticed.

Nodar Kumaritashvili (November 25, 1988 – February 12, 2010) Georgian luger. May peace be with him, his family and friends. The hearts of Canadians go out to them with great sympathy.