That there is a rhetorical question. I don’t need an answer, but I’d like you to think about it.

John Furlong’s speech at the closing of the games was bang on. Well… the English parts anyway. Canada put on a great show. We are and have always been a welcoming nation leading the world in hospitality and unsung natural majesty.

I think Neil Young said it best – SANG it best – when he said “long may you run.” Long may we know that Canada is an amazing place that is worth bragging about. We are the best at a lot of things, a lot of which we can share with the world. Are we afraid we’ll become too “American” if we begin to boast of ourselves more loudly?

It won’t happen, because being Canadian helps us understand that we are not responsible for our glorious wilderness. We are merely stewards and ambassadors for these features and the best is to preserve and showcase them for everybody in the world to share. Also, Canadians have learned that the true reward in victory is not the humiliation of our opponent, but how our opponent helps us to rise up and define ourselves through our determination and effort. In sport as in war, Canada has measured itself against the world’s greatest, most fearsome, and often the best available to prove that we are equal if not better. It took a great US team on Sunday to electrify our own nation.

Long may we run with this feeling of greatness which will never be confused with superiority. We don’t have to be better than anyone. We just have to be the best Canada there is. Numbers like 14, 87, 34 000 000+ should show us that we are.

I love getting emails begging me to speak my mind about stuff. Maybe begging is a strong word. Still, I love getting emails, which you can send to radiounderdog@gmail.com, by the way. Emails remind me that I have people who are interested in the same things as me. They also remind me that I have a gmail account… which you can use anytime you like by sending me an email there. radiounderdog@gmail.com. Did I say that yet? I did? Right. I remember now. On to the email!!!

Hey Roger!

I’ve been thinking about your thoughts on Canadian Amateur athletes – give them the money to hire the best coaches. Great idea, and im wondering why Brian Orser has been coaching that Korean girl for the last 3 years… and not a Canadian skater?

Enjoy the game tonight, but please leave the Slovak jersey at home where it belongs, would ya?

M. House

PS Id like to see some blogging about the drinks the women’s hockey team enjoyed at center ice.

Thanks for that email, Manitoba House.

I firmly believe that the single greatest thing we can do for our athletes is enable them to control their own destinies. The current model is laden with bureaucracy and administrators who wet their beaks before the athletes even see a penny. Those athletes with endorsement deals (think Catriona Lemay Doan + Cheerios) have more financial freedom to do as they please and train as they please with whom they please, if you please.

It does seem treasonous to see Canadian figure skating legend Brian Orser training the Korean skater who goes on to win gold on Canadian soil. While I admittedly don’t know the ins and outs of how this arrangement came to be or how Orser is not training a Canadian athlete, I do know that Kim Yu-Na is the highest paid athlete in Korea at the moment and chose Brian Orser to train her.

It seem money can buy results. The US programs are well funded by private and corporate donors. If money can buy results, then let those who would pay for the result control the money.

As with everything in Canada, we don’t have confidence enough in the user. We need parental organizations to make all the decisions for us. When we finally step out of this limiting way of thinking… who knows. Maybe we will own a podium or two. We might be on our way to solving some of Canada’s other problems as well.

As for the Canadian women celebrating with beers and cigars on the ice… maybe not the classiest celebration of all time, but certainly not worth the national over-reaction. It’s refreshing to see our athletes basking in the glory of their accomplishments; something we wrongly regard as taboo. Good on ya, ladies! Now… if the Canadian men don’t win… and they lose to the USA in the gold medal game… then I fully expect to see the Americans celebrate in the exact same way as our women did… and we won’t be able to say boo about it because, well, the precedent has been set. (I hope it doesn’t come to that, ladies. He who laughs last, laughs loudest… at the very end of a party we’ve been looking forward to for 7 years.)