Canada has been taking a lot of crap in the press these last few weeks. The Olympic games is the focus of much of the ire, with headlines from the UK like: 'Vancouver Games continue downhill slide from disaster to calamity"; Canadian organizers are responding to complaints about everything from the weather, protesters, ice surfacing and to the fence around the Olympic Flame, and the horrific death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili on the opening day. Add to that the scandal Premier's Danny William's decision to get surgery outside his own province, and worse, outside Canada. He ignited the debate about the quality of health care in Canada versus the United States on both sides of the border. And today, we have the hullabaloo over the gold winning Canadian Women's Hockey team daring to celebrate their win in such a "rowdy" way- drinking and carousing! How dare they? Had this been the gold medal win for the men's team such celebrations would not likely have made the papers; even if it did the finger wagging the girls received would be pats on the back for the men.
Yeah, our collective Canadian image is taking a bit of a pounding.
So it made me feel good to see this video circulating on Facebook. It is Canada, as seen through the eyes of American news anchor Tom Brokaw which was aired just as the games were about to begin. It is a very positive piece about Canada and our relationship with the U.S. I found myself sitting up a little straighter as I watched it- and I was very pleased to see so many shots of Newfoundland.
Thanks Mr. Brokaw, we needed this:
2 comments:
I've heard this from a few Canadians, but I'm not seeing any of the negative coverage here. The worst story I've heard was National Public Radio coverage of the women's hockey game, which was meant to be funny but just came across sad-- all the drunk Canadians they interviewed seemed to say things like "hockey is the only thing we have in Canada, so it's just not (insert whine) faiiiiir if they take it too." When indeed, of course there's much more than "just hockey," as cool as hockey might be. Maybe we're sensitive to negative coverage and don't show as much after being the only Olympics not declared the "best games ever" by the IOC president.
Terri what did you think of the Closing Ceremonies?
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