Canada, We Are Winners!

Oh Canada, be proud, we are winners! These Olympic games have instilled a patriotism in this country that I have never experienced before. We won 14 gold medals the more than another other nation. I am so proud of our athletes, all of them. Joannie Rochette especially touched my heart. Her gutsy performance just days after her mother suddenly passed away was nothing more that remarkable. I was in tears all through out her competition. Then we had our ice dancers, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. I had never witnessed a more beautiful ice dance. They made it look they were floating on ice. The curling had me riveted, so did the speed skating.
Now how about the hockey, our women were fabulous. What about our men, that gold medal game was heart stopper for sure but so sweet with the Sidney Crosby scoring that overtime goal assisted by one of my favorite hockey players, Jarome Iginila. Way to go Canada!

"What's happened, for me, is all of these things together have caused a different kind of patriotism to break out here, and it's beautiful to look at, and that as a whole for me is the prize," said Vancouver Organizing Committee CEO John Furlong. "There has been a euphoria here, and a change. Something has happened, and it's not just in Vancouver, it's all over the country.

"I think the country has taken a different position around these Games. They have not been spectators, they have lived every moment with us. And I think that is something that we can be proud of. I'm not sure how you describe that in a banner headline, but I'd like to think that this has been a great human occasion for the country."

Some called it a new Canadian patriotism, and perhaps that was part of it. These Games were certainly embraced on a staggering scale, from the flood of happy humanity in Vancouver's streets, to the crowds that lined up for hours to experience anything that had to do with the Olympics, to the millions of people across this country huddled around their televisions like they were prehistoric"
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"Patriotism is not about licensed apparel; one is a cause, and the other a symptom, and I feel like saying this was a new patriotism is too simple. We have always been proud of this grand experiment, proud to be Canadian, proud of who exactly we were. I feel like this was not just a flowering of the Canadian heart, but a revelation of it. It had always been there, beating away. We just decided to let the world see it. And we let ourselves see it, too.

"This," incoming Canadian Olympic Committee president Marcel Aubut said, "was nation-building at its best." Bruce Arthur

Is this a turning point in our country? I think so. Mediocrity in Canada is dead! We are winners. Lets not go back into our shell. Let's keep up our excellence in all areas not just sports. Let's keep this patriotism up! Wave your flags and sing Oh Canada! We are a great nation, never forget that! Let's keep showing the world, we are number one!