Best of 2010: Team Canada

this one's a bit of a rant.

Who: Team Canada
What: The Olympics
Category: Sport
Why: Ok so here's where my patriotic bias comes in but um this is my blog so you'll have to deal with it. I was initially, and I guess, still in some ways, against Vancouver hosting the Olympics. There was a lot of controversy concerning First Nations land treaties, which is a never healing wound in this country's history; the treatment of homeless people in Vancouver's downtown East side, who were treated horribly by their community, BC went so far as passing a law that allowed police officers to forcibly remove them from the streets and even detain them, doesn't our charter guarantee freedom of mobility? Uh huh!

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. I've met them, they're super nice and super short.

Also the gentrification of the downtown east side, and I don't mean re-building the neighbourhood to make it a better place for current residents, I mean pushing people out, re-developing, and jacking up property value so that only a certain type of person can afford to live there. Not to mention the fact that Olympic committees ALWAYS go over budget and once the closing ceremonies are done, its the people of the city who have to pick up the tab, which are hundreds of millions of dollars, easy. And now its come out today that a dog sledding company culled 100 of its dogs because business slowed down after the Olympics. Excess is the game the Olympics has become, a far cry from its origins.


After all of that why is Team Canada on this list? Well people everywhere became curling experts, the boys at the pub were watching ice skating, people who never cared about luge were suddenly glued to the television. And while I was against the Olympics, I wasn't against our athletes, who work so hard, and are often not shown the appreciation they deserve. Team Canada is the best of 2010 because its about the athletes, not about a giant over spending corporation! There was a single consciousness in this country, we were all focused on the same things, we all wanted the same things, we were all proud, we were all happy, a Calgarian probably hugged and Edmontonian, and for those few weeks we'd wake up to good news and victory, and we owe our athletes for all of that! This is why they are the best of 2010.