"We never claimed to be perfect. That means we've learned to be humble"

This couldn't have been said more perfectly. With permission, I am posting this, as a proud Canadian who is currently swelling with pride for our amazing athletes. This country and all of us in it need be proud. Not just for the amazing talent that we possess, but for being such beautiful people. My heart is shaped like a maple leaf.


"We say “excuse me” and ”I’m sorry”, as well as “please” and “thanks”. Even when it’s not our fault, we apologize.
Sure, one arm of the torch didn’t rise, but when the earthquake struck Haiti, Canadians raised their hands to say “we’ll help”.
And yeah, there’s a fence around the torch, but you can walk right up and shake hands with our Prime Minister, and most famous Canadians. We put Gretzky in the back of a pickup, in the rain, not surrounded by police, and he was okay. And by the way, the “Great One” is Canadian and he wasn’t complaining! We do have security at the Games, of course, but most people don’t even have a gun they have to leave at home.
The medals ARE under lock and key, but our doors and our hearts are open to the world.
It has been pointed out that some buses broke down last week, but let’s not overlook the fact that our banking system didn’t!
We didn’t get the “green ice-maker” right this time, but we will, eventually.
Just like we did when we invented the Zamboni.
Citius altius fortius
If you don’t reach higher, how do you get faster and stronger?
Was the first quad jump perfect?
Should we not have given snowboarding to the world “in case” it didn’t take off?
So big deal one of the four torch arms didn’t rise, good thing we had three more! It’s called contingency planning.!
But remember, the Canada-Arm works every time in outerspace, and insulin turned out to be okay.
We couldn’t change the weather, but maybe we can help to stop global warming.
We don’t have the tax base of the US, or the power of the Chinese, but, per capita, we ponied up for some pretty kiss- ass venues in the worst global recession ever!
Sure, some folks couldn’t afford tickets, but our health care is universal.
We have shown the world that we can raise our voices in celebration and song, but moments later stand in silence to respect a tragic event ….together….spontaneously, and unrehearsed.
What’s more, we don’t need permission from anyone to have a slam poet, fiddlers with piercing’s, and a lesbian singer tell our story to the world, while our multilingual Haitian-born (black) head-of-state shares a box with her First Nations equals.
We’ve shown the world that it doesn’t always rain in Vancouver, that you can strive for excellence, but not get hung up on perfection. And we’ve learned what it feels like to be picked on by some no-name newspaper guy, and we don’t have to take it lying down!
So the point is not the snow, or the hydraulics, or a couple of guys being late to a ceremony.
We know we’re lucky that these are the biggest problems we had to deal with in the last few weeks.
So take your cheap shots, Guardian newspaper and cynics of the world!! We’re bigger and better than that.
What’s more, we’re finally starting to believe it!
Do you believe?