A Perfect Ending

I didn’t have to watch the gold medal hockey game between Canada and USA to know that Canada had won. Perhaps Americans right across the border may have heard the roar of Canadians across Canada as they erupted in deafening cheers. I wasn’t in downtown Vancouver to witness the crowds gathered to celebrate the win of what is considered “Canada’s game,” but the cheering and horns honking did not escape Burnaby either. Fans on the streets and those half hanging outside of cars were waving their beloved red and white maple leaf flag and honking their horns as they passed other visible Canadian hockey fans.

The win, considered to be the most important game to Canadians, was the perfect ending to the Vancouver 2010 winter games. Breaking the record of the most golds won by any nation during the winter olympics, this victory was the icing on top.

These games brought out a side of Canadians that I’ve rarely seen. In the three years I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen so much pride and patriotism. I barely knew the Canadian anthem until the games began and during the olympics it could be heard everywhere. Fans would spontaneously break out singing “Oh Canada…” and everyone would join in. The streets of Vancouver were filled with red and white maple leaf flags waved above heads and draped across shoulders of adoring fans throughout the games. To outsiders it may be just a game, but for Canadians everywhere the gold medal win in hockey, both men’s and women’s, cemented their belief that it’s great to be Canadian.