Winter Olympics 2010 - It's on F*&kers.

[Elesirdur]

This dude is awesome at french

Yeah, John Furlong definitely speaks "BC French": ie. with the command of the language and accent of a semi-retarded child. I would say most anglophone Canadians speak "BC French" unless they really studied the language hard in school.

[dudeguy]

woooo Neil Young!

[dudeguy]

yeeeeeesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss this keeps getting better!!!!!!!

[Akiyama]

I'm gonna miss the Olympics

[ODF]

Yeah, John Furlong definitely speaks "BC French": ie. with the command of the language and accent of a semi-retarded child. I would say most anglophone Canadians speak "BC French" unless they really studied the language hard in school.

Jennifer Heil has a very cute accent ... so If a BC French looks like that I think its cute. She also looks like a very good person.

[Not not Mattaru]

Oh yeah! THE SHAT!

[Thoronas]

Lol fucking shatner

[Akiyama]

William Shatner ftw, and this woman is hot o.o;

[Elesirdur]

Catherine O'Hara was absolutely hilarious on SCTV.

Woo, Michael J. Fox!

[Akiyama]

Omg, Michael J. Fox

[dudeguy]

This is such a random closing ceremony

Spoiler: show

Michael J. Fox shook the crowd with his performance, because of Parkinsons.

[Elesirdur]

Only two posts to a Parkinson's joke, eh?

I love the 'tribute to Canadian stereotypes' routines. I'm certainly getting a good laugh out of it all here in Victoria, but I'm going to be interested to see what the foreign press make of it all.

[Blarg]

what is going on

[dudeguy]

the greatest spectacle humanity has ever witnessed

[Blarg]

at the end everyone chugs a bottle of maple syrup

[aduidarnenye]

Wow, this closing ceremony is about as jingo-y as one can make it.

[Elesirdur]

It's got sexy lady mounties, what more do you need?

In all seriousness though, the idea of a "Canadian identity" is so fractured it's hard to do justice to the identity of modern Canada. Reaching into our nation's history and picking not only a song that was, for a long time, the unofficial national anthem of Canada, and pairing it with a vaudeville-esque show of Canadian stereotypes is about the best we could do. Yeah, modern Canada has nothing to do with lumberjacks and mounties in red serge, but it's something all Canadians - be they from Anglo/French/European backgrounds or the hundreds of immigrant cultures that have defined Canada in the last 75 years - can still agree on and have a good laugh about.

Canada's cultural diversity is a major point of pride for Canadians at home and abroad, but it has its dark side too. Vancouver's two biggest non-Caucasian communities are Chinese and South Asian (Indian and Pakistani). So how would we celebrate that, have Punjabi performers come on and do a show in Punjabi featuring traditional Indian culture? Same with the Chinese community. Vancouver's got its fair share of first-generation immigrants who, after a decade or more in Canada, can hardly speak either official language and just stay in their ethnic communities. The lack of an American-style melting pot mentality to cultural integration of new Canadians has its positives and negatives. Getting a consensus on what constitutes Canadian identity is virtually impossible. But that's also the point of Canada's immigration and social system; it's a pretty open space for people to enjoy a very high quality of life how they see fit.

Nevertheless, gigantic inflatable beavers and a jazzy-crooner rendition of The Maple Leaf Forever's pretty damn good for me.


Edit: EPIC FAIL with Nickleback performing. Son, I am disappoint. Fuck, even more fail with Avril Lavine. Oh well, can't exactly expect the Japandriods, Holy Fuck!, or Owen Pallet/Final Fantasy to be performing :\

[wipers]

Giant beavers !!

[Kyo]

This thing needs more aboot.

[Tyche]

I <3 Michael Buble with all my <3.