With Glowing Hearts

Trip Start Feb 08, 2010

Trip End Feb 28, 2010

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Flag of Canada Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Monday, March 1, 2010

As you know, I arrived in Vancouver a week before the Olympic Games began and was struck by the construction of venues everywhere. I just didn't know where all the people would come from to fill them and worried there would be a dozen venues across town with few patrons. However, I was relieved when the Torch Relay arrived in Vancouver on the Thursday night before the Opening Ceremonies. Crowds gathered and streets were filled to the brim with spectators wanting a peek at the Flame.

This didn’t surprise me as it was reminiscence of the effect the Flame had in each of the communities it past through. On the day of the Opening Ceremonies, streets were blocked off and CTV television was following the Torch by helicopter and vehicle and the event was being shown on every television screen I saw. My worries were subsiding.

The Flags are everywhere

However, after the start of the Games it rained in Vancouver and the death of the Georgian Luger had a damping effect and the crowds were fairly small. Things built up again by Tuesday (Day 5) and then things kicked into high gear on Thursday (Day 7). By Friday evening Vancouver was alive as I had never seen it. Things ended up breaking down a bit after Day 10, when the Canadian Men’s Hockey Team lost a preliminary game against the USA. However, by Day 12 and after the Canadian Woman’s Hockey Team won Gold, the crowds had fully returned and then some.

This final weekend was something I hadn’t expected. In fact, there were so many people on the streets of Vancouver, it was difficult to comprehend. From one end of Granville to the other, the street was a solid mass of partiers. Much of Robson Street, other than the intersections of Howe and Hornby streets were also jammed. At Robson Square, we had really attempted to manage crowds with rotating events in different parts of the square at different times so that crowds kept moving but it was ineffective much of this last weekend.

The Men’s Hockey Gold Medal Match with the USA topped things off. There were bus loads of spectators from afar who came to Vancouver simply to watch or hear the Game as they marched through the streets of Vancouver, in a quest simply to be "part of the action"

Grasping for a glimpse of the Torch

. When Sydney scored the “golden goal” the streets and celebration sites such as Robson Square exploded with the result of people literally spilling out into the streets. Howe and Hornby were really the only north and south routes through Vancouver and Georgia the only west and east route but the police couldn’t contain the crowds and ended up simply blocking off these streets to let the people play. The city stood at a standstill. You would have thought that everyone had just won a million dollars. A collegeue was traveling on BC Ferries when the game ended (it has the ability to broadcast television) and the shipped launched into the signing of our national anthem, “Oh Canada”.

The Vancouver2010 mission is “to touch the soul of the nation and inspire the world by creating and delivering an extraordinary Olympic and Paralympics experience with lasting legacies”.

I mentioned in my Opening Ceremonies blog posting that I was moved by the sense of nationalism expressed in BC Place when Team Canada entered the stadium at the end of the Parade of Athletes. The next day I walked to the Olympic Flame around mid-night to view the Flame and while not much was going on, there was a group of young men across the street wearing red and white and who just broke out in “Oh Canada” and I was so captivated by this that I snapped the attached photo

Young Men Signing "Oh Canada" at the Caldron

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There were numerous signs of patriotism that surprised me – hoards of people crowding Robson Square to watch hockey in the freezing rain, spontaneous signing of the national anthem for no apparent reason, the sea of flags around guys and everyone in Canadian Olympic Gear with their little red mittens on, a little boy of 10 years old bring “Oh Canada” to life to a 100,000 spectators gathered to watch “Ignite the Dream*” at Robson square – twice in a row once after the other. I’ve tried to capture some of the unique expressions of Canadian patriotism in the attached photos. Canada will never be the same. With Glowing Hearts – what better motto can you ask for and achieve.

* Ignite the Dream was a spectacular and innovative 12 minute show featuring lighting (42 searchlights) pyrotechnics (300 feet above), lasers (25-watt), projected images and performer on the Zip Line at Robson Square. Attendance averaged between 75,000 to 100,000 nightly.

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