Fairy Tales Do Come True

And so it ended. With one goal, Sid the Kid closed the Vancouver Olympics and completed Canada’s record-setting gold medal run, putting the finishing touch on the Games that will define my generation. For my whole life, I’ve heard politicians, TV personalities and beer commercials proclaiming our prominent place on the world stage with that awkward blend of arrogance and nervous self-doubt that haunts all our searching for the Canadian Identity. But this morning, I woke up in a country astonished to discover that it’s really true. Newspaper headlines and radio show hosts all had the same tone of humble pride: “Well imagine that! We did it!” The roaring crowds in roads and stadiums, the tragic heroism of Joannie Rochette, Clara Hughes’ beaming exit from a glorious career, the glut of gold medals, and of course that golden moment that will live in our hearts until they stop, gave an example of excellence fit for the whole world, and finally showed us what it is to be Canadian: We live in this great cold country with three coasts, we are good at what we do, we love one another deeply, and that is enough. I’ll end with a phrase I heard shouted more times than I could count in streets and bars across London last night:
God keep our land, glorious and free.