Super Sunday's Olympic Finale.

Over the course of the past few weeks since the Opening Ceremony at BC Place Stadium, I had witnessed a sense of great Canadian pride and patriotism in the city I have not seen in, well, EVER. People of all ages, stripes, and colours came out to enjoy the numerous festivities offered all over the city. Along with the locals were visitors from other countries enjoying themselves during the Olympic games. The population of downtown Vancouver swelled three-fold, turning this small village of Vancouver into a true metropolitan city. From Livecity Downtown and Livecity Yaletown to the numerous provincial pavilions around False Creek and the international houses scattered around town, people were queuing in line at every venue. It was like having Expo 86 with the Olympic games. Queuing for an hour was not unheard of. In fact, that was considered to be a short wait! The queue for a chance to zip across Robson Square on what was called “The Zip Line” had an estimated wait time of seven hours at one point. Seven hours of wait for thirty-seconds of glory. Unbelievable.

Our entertainment strip along Granville Street was THE place to be to feel loved and be embraced by random people sporting Canada flag capes on their backs and maple leafs painted on faces. Everywhere you looked, there were droves of people waving the flag while singing “Ole ole ole ole!” and “O’ Canada” while giving everyone high fives as they paraded up and down the street.

On the bus and on the SkyTrain during all hours of the day, someone would start singing “O’ Canada” and everyone else on transit would sing along boastfully with glowing hearts, hand over heart.

But this Sunday, more than all the days combined, had the citizens of this glorious nation on edge. Not only was it the day of the closing ceremony of the XXI Winter Olympic Games, but it was also the day of the men’s hockey final with Team Canada against none other than Team USA. Canada’s reputation as a hockey nation was on the line. Could we pull off a repeat performance at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City when both the men’s and women’s hockey team won gold? We were already half-way there.

From Canada’s Northern Pavilion, I walked along the peaceful streets on a warm and sunny afternoon to HBC where I found a small crowd of people huddled around a window display from street level. Upon moving in closer, I found that they were not admiring the mannequins wearing HBC Olympic gear, but rather, the flat-screen televisions airing the men’s hockey game live. The fact that no sound could be heard from the other side of the glass didn’t bother them at all! Anxiety and tension rose up and down as the nail-biting game played on. Thirty seconds left on the leader board and and Canada was in the lead at 2 - 1. Victory was within reach in mere seconds when suddenly the Americans scored a goal on us to tie 2 - 2. The painful cries could be heard nation-wide.

As I kept walking along towards Robson Square, I couldn’t help but to notice the eerie stillness and quiet in the host city. Robson Square with the British Columbia Canada Pavilion housed inside the Vancouver Art Gallery is usually full of life with Olympic mascots ice skating on the new GE sponsored ice rink but the usual crowd of people were no where to be seen. That is, until I continued walking towards CTV at Robson and Burrard to where they had moved the news desk on an elevated platform on street level. A sizeable crowd surrounded the news desk platform glued to the television monitors white knuckled and mouths agape. There were people on the roof of a bus shelter and people in trees. There were people climbing on lamp posts as well for a birds eye view.

As the rules to hockey in the Olympics differ slightly from the rules to the NHL, the game went into a shoot out instead of in overtime. While in the middle of it all, armed with my photo and video recording devices in hand, the moment we were all waiting for happened before our very eyes: Sidney Crosby took a shot and SCORED securing Canada’s reputation as the FIRST and still the BEST nation in hockey. The crowd went wild. What was a quiet sea of nerve-racking spectators quickly turned into a roaring tsunami of cheers in a split second. Hands shot up in the air in concert with the flags and everyone was embracing everyone else in this proud and shining moment of being Canadian. Young guys to the left of me revealed a two-litre bottle of champagne disguised in a pop bottle and started shaking and spraying it all over his friend.

The streets of Vancouver roared with joy and celebration as cars continued to honk and crowds cheered and sang songs long after the game was over. While watching the recap of the days event on the news, I learned that this sensation echoed at the Molson House, in pubs, and on the streets in Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto. A nation unified by a common thread. The thread that forms the fabric of this nation.

With a world-record breaking fourteen gold medals, the most golds won by a single country in the Winter Olympics, along with seven silver medals and five bronze medals totalling twenty-six medals in all and earning Canada in third-pace after USA and Germany in medal count, we have a lot to celebrate to and a lot to be proud of. Forget about our traditionally docile and reserved Canadian mannerisms, this is our time to make some noise and LIVE OUT LOUD!

GO CANADA GO