Vancouver, Canadian Politeness & Patriotism

It's nice to be nice, but I'm missing a bit of THIS bragging.

NBC Brian Williams, Leaving Behind a Thank-you Note to Canada

{59/365} thank you vancouver ~ thank you canada!, originally uploaded by beesquare.

Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor, NBC, from Sunday, February 28, 2010

After tonight's broadcast and after looting our hotel mini-bars, we're going to try to brave the
blizzard and fly east to home and hearth, and to do laundry well into next week. Before we
leave this thoroughly polite country, the polite thing to do is leave behind a thank-you note.

Thank you, Canada:

For being such good hosts.

For your unfailing courtesy.

For your (mostly) beautiful weather.

For scheduling no more than 60 percent of your float plane departures at the exact moment when I
was trying to say something on television.

For not seeming to mind the occasional (or constant) good-natured mimicry of your accents.

For your unique TV commercials -- for companies like Tim Hortons -- which made us
laugh and cry.

For securing this massive event without choking security, and without publicly displaying
a single automatic weapon.

For having the best garment design and logo-wear of the games -- you've made wearing
your name a cool thing to do.

For the sportsmanship we saw most of your athletes display.

For not honking your horns. I didn't hear one car horn in 15 days -- which also means none
of my fellow New Yorkers rented cars while visiting.

For making us aware of how many of you have been watching NBC all these years.

For having the good taste to have an anchorman named Brian Williams on your CTV network,
who turns out to be such a nice guy.

For the body scans at the airport which make pat-downs and cavity searches unnecessary.

For designing those really cool LED Olympic rings in the harbor, which turned to gold when your
athletes won one.



For always saying nice things about the United States...when you know we're listening.

For sharing Joannie Rochette with us.

For reminding some of us we used to be a more civil society.
Mostly, for welcoming the world with such ease and making lasting friends with all of us.

February 25 at the Olympics, part 1

Thursday afternoon my Dad, my younger brother Christopher, my pal Moira and I converged at Canada Hockey Place for the Olympic medal Women's Hockey game - Canada vs USA. It was astounding. And my camera battery charge was nearly zilch. UGH! The few shots I got are interesting, the first below is my attempt to capture Trevor Linden and Corner Gas actress sitting in the private box right above our seats. The second one - golden - there he is Trevor Linden and my dad - hilarious.
Brent Butt was there sitting above us too. Later we had Premier Campbell's brother Michael Campbell sit a few rows over from us. Chris went outside for a heater and when he studied the guy next to him, he realized it was former Barenaked Ladies vocalist, Steven Page (who's looking a lot like Matthew Good these days). It is actually beyond description being there. My right ear has lost some hearing due to Moira's screaming next to me. An unforgettable experience.

Trevor Linden in grey shirt, turned away as I snuck my paparazzi shot.

It was star-studded all around and because of the way my dear old dad dresses for work, people kept looking over at him, thinking he might be someone famous. Even the actress from Corner Gas is looking over at him..."Hmmmm, who is that guy?" Chris and I had a chuckle with these glances at dad. My big brother Mike would have loved this.

CANADA, our home and native land

Be my Vancouver Valentine

So, Happy Valentine's Day, with the sentiments from Tom Robbins' novel Jitterbug Perfume:

"February is pitiless, and it is boring. That parade of red numerals on its page adds up to zero: birthdays of politicians, a holiday reserved for rodents, what kind of celebrations are those? The only bubble in the flat champagne of February is Valentine’s Day. It was no accident that our ancestors pinned Valentine’s Day on February’s shirt: he or she lucky enough to have a lover in frigid, antsy February has cause for celebration, indeed."


On the heels of yesterday's pathetic and shameless show of idiots - anti-Olympic protesters - smashing windows of the Hudson's Bay downtown store, throwing paint, trashing private vehicles, knocking over Canadian mail boxes (from which many of these losers collect their bi-weekly welfare cheques), vandalizing bus shelters, on and on it goes - I feel compelled to make my statement of free-speech and my protest. The country that I am born to is Canada. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms isn't a pass to carry on in the manner that the 200 some-odd blacked-out, masked degenerates have yesterday morning.

From Flickr

Do they think they're Canadian? Smashing the windows at Hudson's Bay? Are you kidding me? It's part of Canada's history - a Canadian institution!

One character, pulling his balaclava down to speak to a media representative yesterday, went as far as to say "I don't think buildings have feelings, they are living entities..." to legitimize the vandalism in our city. To that I say, please provide us with the address of your hovel so we can come over they are smash a few things of yours. We'd be happy to investigate your logic here.

To be clear on my personal feelings about the Olympics, I'm not oblivious to the fact that the five rings are a multi-billion dollar industry hound - and yes I believe the elitists are using sports for profit and partnering with large corporation sponsorships is nothing new - what's the difference between the circus behind the Super Bowl or any other major sport staple? I have a little chuckle daily when I see a member of the District staff drive into the parking lot with his back window's sign - the five rings with a red line crossed through it. It's good to be a bit of an outlaw on these issues that effect our social well being. And let's face it, it's having an effect in every direction - good and bad. But vandalism and intimidating pedestrians is so far from the intelligent right to protest. I see this video footage yesterday and I think that if this were China, those kids wouldn't be going back to their bunkers that night.



Why ruin it? Let the families enjoy some peaceful fun downtown and let the young athletes who have strived to achieve this honour of competing have their time. It's here in Vancouver. Try being proud of your country and the place you call home. Keep it respectful, protect it. Be glad you're not in Haiti under a plastic tarp. Get off welfare - get a job at the Bay maybe. Serve your fellow citizens instead of destroying what people have worked hard to provide you with. Yes - unfortunately a portion of our paycheques already goes to subsidizing these morons in black hoodies. Make no mistake - these degenerates live off the proceeds of our government which we in turn as law abiding, tax paying, get-up-in-the-morning-and-contribute-something make way for. I for one am disgusted with the actions of yesterday and sick that I fund their warped lifestyle of hate and destruction. Ironic.

One last thing. There's more people in red and white than the black hoodies. I think we can take em.