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Now that Canada has done rather well on the world stage, can it now be considered "A real country anyway"? And stopped being blamed for a lot of the world's ills?

Good points, seb, and I agree with what you have to say. I think Canada sent a national record number of althetes (200+) and given the number of Olympic ads we've been hit with over here thumping our chests it has felt a more than a little *uncanadian*.

The big high, unsurprisingly, has been the hockey games. Beating the Russians with the whole Ovechkin v Crosby and then having the game tied in the last 24 seconds was almost unbearable as the whole game was so close.

We're just having our moment. We don't get it often...

Khornholio wrote:Now that Canada has done rather well on the world stage, can it now be considered "A real country anyway"? And stopped being blamed for a lot of the world's ills?

I still reserve the right to blame things on the French Canadians...

Sorry, can you type that again? Some of my health-care benefits got in the way of my screen just now.

Ah; I presume you were hurt six months ago?

kid_happy wrote:Good points, seb, and I agree with what you have to say. I think Canada sent a national record number of althetes (200+) and given the number of Olympic ads we've been hit with over here thumping our chests it has felt a more than a little *uncanadian*.

The big high, unsurprisingly, has been the hockey games. Beating the Russians with the whole Ovechkin v Crosby and then having the game tied in the last 24 seconds was almost unbearable as the whole game was so close.

We're just having our moment. We don't get it often...

Dude, be proud, be really proud. Sounds like it was a great game.

I love field hockey and one of my favourite Olympic events was Australia breaking through and winning in Greece (at last - we're constant World Cup winners but were never able to break through at Olympic level). Unfortunately, though, despite hockey being a really heavily played game here with a strong following, coverage was drowned out by events with more medals that Australians might win. That means coverage is almost entirely swimming, despite competitive swimming being completely marginal and very boring to watch.

Wait... there's a WINTER Olympics?


If it's not Kabbadi, I'm not interested.

chaplaingrabthar wrote:

mattyboy22 wrote:

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Don't even get me started on the Summer Olympics.

Arrests? What arrests? We see no arrests. Look over there at the pretty new stadium the Chinese have built for us.

Just wait until they are in South America......the Summer Olympics featuring the most murders, coming in 2012!

You know, I'm almost positive that London (host of the 2012 Summer Olympics) is not, in point of fact, a city located in South America.

Also, I'm not sure the murder rate will be that high. Too many of those damn security camers everywhere.

My bad. I meant 2016, which is in Brazil.

(Vaguely on topic, as it's about one of Canada's gold medals)

So, someone explain this to me.
how is it that the US and Canada each had ONE loss, yet Canada got the Gold medal?

Yes. I know that they won the last game. I'm just trying to figure out why THAT game was the last game? I mean... One loss a piece seems EVEN to me.

What did I miss?

Thanks.

Eric

There's an initial round, then a mini-tourney of the four top teams.

I've heard from more than person how Canadians were actually kinda rude to the Americans that were there. Not just talking hockey here, but the whole games. Apparently our neighbors don't really like us very much. Or at least relish beating us or seeing our skiers crash, etc. Which is surprising to Americans since most of us don't have any strong feelings toward Canada of any kind in any way. At all. *shrug*

gorgon wrote:Which is surprising to Americans since most of us don't have any strong feelings toward Canada of any kind in any way. At all. *shrug*

I guess you guys never realize how effective your media is then.
Especially how they portray canadians.

Im not surprised at all.

sebster wrote:Meanwhile, the medal count is a crock. Consider an event like the hockey, with huge international interest, representing the best players drawn from fields of thousands, which has one gold medal for men's and one for women's. Then you consider speed skating, with a total player base that's likely less than a tenth of hockey, but between long and short course there's twenty gold medals up for grabs.
Being the best hockey team in the world is a terrific achievement, and while the best speed skating nation is also impressive, it isn't as much of an achievement. It certainly isn't ten times as impressive.

I had the same thoughts about skiing and all the ice dancing/skating events. Skiers and the speed skaters are like in 5 events. Sure, it's impressive to metal in them, but it's 5 chances vs. 1 for hockey. And, it's a lot easier to metal in multiple similar events (honestly, I don't know how different the skiing events are, other than distance) than trying to compete in hockey and curling, etc. I almost wonder if they shouldn't count each team member for metal counts, so that hockey gets what - 17 or 18?

Interesting discussion this morning on talkradio. Olympic hockey was pretty widely watched. No fighting. Sure torpedoes the notion that if the NHL bans fighting it won't be popular. Might make it more widely watched, at least in the US.

Congrats to Team Canada for the gold count and Team USA for the metal count. Sad to see the US win the gold metal game, but it's not like losing to Canada is an embarassment.

As to how Canada won the gold with a loss. Winning your group, which the US did, gave them a bye to the quarters. Canada had to play Germany (iirc) to qualify for the quarters - they basically got into the playoffs a game early.

I dunno, Luna. "Due South" portrayed Canadians as Mountie supermen. Didn't seem that negative. In all seriousness, I don't think there's much portrayal here at all. Maybe that's part of it. The fact that we tend to forget you're up there could rub the wrong way.

And yeah, I kinda garbled that up earlier regarding the hockey bracket. The top four teams jump to the final eight. There's actually eight teams in the mix at that point, not four. The Canada loss was in the initial round robin.

Ive no interest in the Olympics, "we" didnt do anything, and neither did you. Some athletes who you have never met but happend to be born somewhere near you won some stuff.. ive never saw the relevance.

I dont support England either so lets be fair, im not a hypocrite, i dont give a flying feth what the overpaid nancy boys who make up out national teams get up to. It doesnt affect my life in anyway.. and i just never liked the idea of the Olympics, they try to make out like it "promotes friendship" when really it just seems to promote Xenophobia against other countries.

Im a miserable old cynic though.. wars do that to you.

These winter Olympics actually startled me with the outpouring of aggressive Canadian Spirit. We've always tried t be quietly patriotic, and I feel that these games led us down a dark path. I was in Vancouver for part of the games and I was severely disappointed in my nation when a group of people wearing Italian flags were booed on the street. That's not the Canadian way.

I'm super proud of all of our athletes, but I have a hard time trying to take ownership of this 'my country set a record' business because, let's face it, I didn't contribute to that.

So well done Canadian athletes. Canadian citizens... Let's try to remember what we're known for. (Hint: it's not being cocky)

I liked the pic of the women's hockey team celebrating their win. It looked very, I don't know...honest. Good for them.

LunaHound wrote:

gorgon wrote:Which is surprising to Americans since most of us don't have any strong feelings toward Canada of any kind in any way. At all. *shrug*

I guess you guys never realize how effective your media is then.
Especially how they portray canadians.

Im not surprised at all.

This surprises me too. My perception of Canadians is basically the same as us, but fewer, nicer, with better news reporting, a better-organized healthcare system, and fewer enemies. We’ve got more wealth and power and people, but also have a lot more violence, racial tensions, and more belligerent foreign policy. We also import a good number of comedians from Canada. Where are you getting that Americans have a negative opinion of Canada?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Frazzled wrote:I liked the pic of the women's hockey team celebrating their win. It looked very, I don't know...honest. Good for them.

Agreed. Okay, maybe drinking and smoking aren't the things we want our kids to associate with sports and success, but it was simple, unguarded joy. And that's pretty refreshing, given how corporate and regimented and controlled a lot of the olympics is.

I think it's more to do with lots of bad sitcoms making fun of canadian stereotypes and accents quite a lot. It might be easy to forget living in america that that stuff gets broadcast all over the world, and what might seem like gentle comedy can come off as intensely patronising and irritating to the people in the country being shown- especially as accuracy is not often a priority.
This feeds into general populist anti-americanism which is really linked to a lot of factors from xenophobia to anti-consumerism and anti-globalisation. Note, I'm not saying this is justified, just laying out where it comes from. America, as the world's hyperpower and most dominant media force, is easy to fall in love with, but equally easy to hate.
I know growing up I used to roll my eyes a lot at how Ireland was portrayed on american TV- it was so OTT twee, the accents are nothing like anything you'd actually find in the country, and any Irish names are usually horribly mangled. (This still goes on actually, god I cringed every time they said Nuala in Hellboy 2)

Anyway, none of this is meant as an attack on americans, be aware. An excellent book on this topic is "Why Do People Hate America." Unfortunately, the publishers took the incredibly distasteful step of putting a burning american flag on the cover, so I've rarely been able to get an american friend to read it. It's actually quite balanced and not anti american I think. If you can track it down you might enjoy it.

Da Boss wrote:I think it's more to do with lots of bad sitcoms making fun of canadian stereotypes and accents quite a lot. It might be easy to forget living in america that that stuff gets broadcast all over the world, and what might seem like gentle comedy can come off as intensely patronising and irritating to the people in the country being shown- especially as accuracy is not often a priority.

Very accurately put.

LunaHound wrote:

Da Boss wrote:I think it's more to do with lots of bad sitcoms making fun of canadian stereotypes and accents quite a lot. It might be easy to forget living in america that that stuff gets broadcast all over the world, and what might seem like gentle comedy can come off as intensely patronising and irritating to the people in the country being shown- especially as accuracy is not often a priority.

Very accurately put.

Okay, but sitcoms do that to everyone. I grew up a nerd, and still enjoy nerdy pursuits, but I don’t take The Big Bang Theory as a personal insult. Are you guys saying that Canadian and Irish-produced sitcoms don’t traffic and wallow in shallow stereotypes for the sake of broad comedy?

Mannahnin wrote:

LunaHound wrote:

Da Boss wrote:I think it's more to do with lots of bad sitcoms making fun of canadian stereotypes and accents quite a lot. It might be easy to forget living in america that that stuff gets broadcast all over the world, and what might seem like gentle comedy can come off as intensely patronising and irritating to the people in the country being shown- especially as accuracy is not often a priority.

Very accurately put.

Okay, but sitcoms do that to everyone. I grew up a nerd, and still enjoy nerdy pursuits, but I don’t take The Big Bang Theory as a personal insult. Are you guys saying that Canadian and Irish-produced sitcoms don’t traffic and wallow in shallow stereotypes for the sake of broad comedy?

I guess it matters where those came from doesnt it.

I think it's not that we have sitcoms that poke fun once in a while, it's that they're OUR sitcoms. Always seems meaner when it's the perceived bully on the block doing it. I kinda get that, I guess.

Edit: Ninja'd by Luna

Still seemed funny to hear people say that there's actually a little edge of animosity toward Americans there.

I've watched Canadian TV. You have steereotypes of the US also so na na na

Actually, a lot of Canadian sitcoms (to continue the off-topic ramble) are mostly poking fun at ourselves. I mean, "canadian TV" (RMR, this hour as 22 minutes, Corner Gas, etc.) mostly make fun of ourselves.

YMMV.

*Edited because what Gorgon said is so true that i dont think i need to make it anymore clearer xD

Mannahnin wrote:

LunaHound wrote:

Da Boss wrote:I think it's more to do with lots of bad sitcoms making fun of canadian stereotypes and accents quite a lot. It might be easy to forget living in america that that stuff gets broadcast all over the world, and what might seem like gentle comedy can come off as intensely patronising and irritating to the people in the country being shown- especially as accuracy is not often a priority.

Very accurately put.

Okay, but sitcoms do that to everyone. I grew up a nerd, and still enjoy nerdy pursuits, but I don’t take The Big Bang Theory as a personal insult. Are you guys saying that Canadian and Irish-produced sitcoms don’t traffic and wallow in shallow stereotypes for the sake of broad comedy?

I know, I get what you're saying. I'm not trying to defend that sentiment, just explain it. One big factor might be (in the irish case) that we don't make a lot of our own sitcoms (I can only think of one that has been made in Ireland in my lifetime, not counting Father Ted which was made in England.), and the ones we do mostly focus on taking the mickey out of ourselves. Most of our TV is american import, so it's overexposure that causes it, d'you know what I mean? And it's almost always completely one dimensional, innaccurate and condescending. I remember being really happy with the cartoon Gargoyles because their episode set in Ulster was vaguely true to life
But yeah, people shouldn't be so sensitive about it. That sort of rubbish is why I stopped watching TV.

I hear you, and I get the point that gorgon helped elucidate.

I'm just accustomed to seeing sitcoms milk broad and inaccurate stereotypes about everyone and everything for laughs. As a kid from a military family, for example, I didn't get offended by jokes about the military's failings on MASH or on Black Adder Goes Fourth. But I do see what you're saying.

Also the whole "Canada isn't a real country, you're just a part of America"sense that americans put out... Oh my, not much incenses me to near-violence but that does. The whole sense that Canada exists on the USA's handouts, I will seriously chew someone out for that.

Da Boss wrote:It might be easy to forget living in america that that stuff gets broadcast all over the world, and what might seem like gentle comedy can come off as intensely patronising and irritating to the people in the country being shown- especially as accuracy is not often a priority.
This feeds into general populist anti-americanism which is really linked to a lot of factors from xenophobia to anti-consumerism and anti-globalisation. Note, I'm not saying this is justified, just laying out where it comes from. America, as the world's hyperpower and most dominant media force, is easy to fall in love with, but equally easy to hate.
I know growing up I used to roll my eyes a lot at how Ireland was portrayed on american TV- it was so OTT twee, the accents are nothing like anything you'd actually find in the country, and any Irish names are usually horribly mangled.

Oh, totally.

I'm not sure if you folks across the pond realise this, but in large swathes of your popular culture it appears as if you think the rest of the world is a giant theme park. Portrayals of Ireland and the Irish (including awful 'oirish' accents!) are particularly terrible - sentimental, romanticised crap. No, they don't all live in the countryside, singing their merry songs... Britain (or England, the two are interchangeable apparently....) fares no better - it's 'roguish chimney-sweep' archetype, or 'effete snobby bastard' archetype.

All of which would be fine if American culture wasn't rammed. Down. Our. Throats.

But it is a nice, quiet hat. Except for Quebec, that part blows.