French Spoken First at the Opening Ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics!

[Machjo]

I was responding to another post.

Too many ifs here. The govt was a major backer. Hey man, were not the US, we can't finance such projects without govt support. Premier Campbell and other neo-cons suck in the rubes by implying the Olympics will make profit and create numerous jobs. Who's laughing now?

Would you visit Salt Lake City or Sidney because they hosted the Olympic Games? I would visit SLC on the way to the Grand Canyon, and stay a day or two to experience a weird Mormon town.

As far as I'm concerned, the government has no business funding any project unless it:

1. benefits the most destitute of Canadians,

2. benefits everybody as equally as is reasonably possible.

The Olympics fall in neither category. How do they benefit the guy trying to make ends meet? Looking at it that way, it ought to have been left as a private venture, and if the private sector was not willing to foot the bill, then let another country have it. Canada is a beautiful country and there are plenty of reasons to visit Canada without the Olympics.

Now if we are going to spend on the Olympics, then it would make sense to include the minority cultures on the grounds that it must benefit as many people as possible, including minority groups, as per the criteria above. But I still don't think the government should have funded them to begin with.

 

[talloola]

I agree that canada should not have financed the olympics
either, but now that they are 'on', I am enjoying them,
supporting the athletes, and putting the politics aside
for two weeks.

 

[VanIsle]

VI - Not sure what you mean here. Do you mean she sang it right (traditionally) before the opening ceremonies? I must have missed it, but if she did, that's good.

So why would we present the "revised" version in front of 2 billion people on live TV? The audience wasn't hearing what we (Canadians) know as our national anthem. Whoever made that decision made a rather large mistake, in my opinion. It was hard for me to let the patriotic feelings flow freely while my nerve endings were recoiling in horror from that unpleasant rendition of our anthem.

No. I didn't mean that. Sorry - I guess I wasn't very clear. What I meant was, wasn't there a rehearsal before where someone heard her and couldn't someone have said - That doesn't sound at all like Oh Canada! People everywhere talk about how wonderful this girl's voice is but out of all the people I spoke to today, only one said she did just fine with the anthem. Everyone else said she totally ruined it. Like me, many felt that it should have been the fellow that sings before the Canucks play and who makes the audience sing with him. I should know his name but I don't. There, is a man who shows pride in this country and he should have been invited to sing Oh Canada for the ceremonies. He would have done us proud.

 

[VanIsle]

As far as I'm concerned, the government has no business funding any project unless it:

1. benefits the most destitute of Canadians,

2. benefits everybody as equally as is reasonably possible.

The Olympics fall in neither category. How do they benefit the guy trying to make ends meet? Looking at it that way, it ought to have been left as a private venture, and if the private sector was not willing to foot the bill, then let another country have it. Canada is a beautiful country and there are plenty of reasons to visit Canada without the Olympics.

Now if we are going to spend on the Olympics, then it would make sense to include the minority cultures on the grounds that it must benefit as many people as possible, including minority groups, as per the criteria above. But I still don't think the government should have funded them to begin with.

I don't have any problem with any and all cultures being included but because this is Canada and it's a part of Canada where most people don't know how to speak French fluently (if at all), but are English speaking, then that's the language that should have been presented first. I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong but it seems to me that English is more universal than French is.
I've now read here and in the news where many people who were against the Olympics being held here have now thrown down the gauntlet and are enjoying watching. Everyone to their own thing. I'm still not particularly interested and still have not watched our taping of the opening ceremonies and quite likely never will. I bought a red T-shirt to wear at work today. Nothing for free you know. So we all wear an Olympic Save On More shirt (little advertizing on the side I guess) which we are not required to wear but, with most workers in the store wearing them, I'd rather be Canadian enough to wear one than to look like I'm objecting.

 

[Francis2004]

Why is this even an issue ?

Was the English at Montreal's 1976 Olympics an issue.. I don't remember anyone questioning it back then. Heck I don't even remember it being an issue in Alberta in 1988..

I guess maybe they should have used only Cantonese and Hindi to make all Canadians happy.. :angryfire:

Seriously folks get a life.. English and French are both official languages of Canada and the IOC and what ever order they are used, who cares.. This is a petty point.. :roll:

 

[talloola]

Why is this even an issue ?

Was the English at Montreal's 1976 Olympics an issue.. I don't remember anyone questioning it back then. Heck I don't even remember it being an issue in Alberta in 1988..

I guess maybe they should have used only Cantonese and Hindi to make all Canadians happy.. :angryfire:

Seriously folks get a life.. English and French are both official languages of Canada and the IOC and what ever order they are used, who cares.. This is a petty point.. :roll:

thank you, I fully agree, much ado about nothing.

 

[Machjo]

No. I didn't mean that. Sorry - I guess I wasn't very clear. What I meant was, wasn't there a rehearsal before where someone heard her and couldn't someone have said - That doesn't sound at all like Oh Canada! People everywhere talk about how wonderful this girl's voice is but out of all the people I spoke to today, only one said she did just fine with the anthem. Everyone else said she totally ruined it. Like me, many felt that it should have been the fellow that sings before the Canucks play and who makes the audience sing with him. I should know his name but I don't. There, is a man who shows pride in this country and he should have been invited to sing Oh Canada for the ceremonies. He would have done us proud.

I'm with you on having a traditional rendition of Oh Canada, but having the crowd sing along with him would probably not have been appropriate seeing that many of them weren't even Canadian and so likely wouldn't even know the anthem to begin with. Instead, simply having a solo performer sing it well, with the rest remaining silent out of respect would likely have been more appropriate. Asking people to stand for the anthem, however, I think could have been appropriate seeing that you do not need to know the anthem to get up on your two feet.

 

[VanIsle]

I'm with you on having a traditional rendition of Oh Canada, but having the crowd sing along with him would probably not have been appropriate seeing that many of them weren't even Canadian and so likely wouldn't even know the anthem to begin with. Instead, simply having a solo performer sing it well, with the rest remaining silent out of respect would likely have been more appropriate. Asking people to stand for the anthem, however, I think could have been appropriate seeing that you do not need to know the anthem to get up on your two feet.

Again, I guess I wasn't clear. I really wasn't thinking of other countries joining the singing of our anthem but rather of a show of pride in our country by Canadians. Maybe it would have been a bit over the top but just once I would like to see Oh Canada sung with some gusto.

 

[L Gilbert]

"French Spoken First at the Opening Ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics!"
So? They had to use some language. Speaking gibberish would be kind of dumb, right?
Anna thinks it should have been Cree, Ojibwe, or Dene or something.
But after selling Chinese made "Canadian native" knicknacks, who knows what the Oly people would do?

 

[El Barto]

What a pathetic thing to argue about geezzz

 

[lunarwinds]

Well just to clarify that it wasn't the Canadian government nor VANOC that made French the first language. I know it was brought up before, but French is the first language of the Modern Olympics. If you look at other opening ceremonies, all of them open with french. Salt Lake city, Beijing, Torino, Greece all did for sure (I just watched them on Youtube). So don't take offence to it, it wasn't the Quebecois' fault. Your nation still shines brightly to the world. Lets keep it that way, I hope to move there from the US after college

 

[El Barto]

Well just to clarify that it wasn't the Canadian government nor VANOC that made French the first language. I know it was brought up before, but French is the first language of the Modern Olympics. If you look at other opening ceremonies, all of them open with french. Salt Lake city, Beijing, Torino, Greece all did for sure (I just watched them on Youtube). So don't take offence to it, it wasn't the Quebecois' fault. Your nation still shines brightly to the world. Lets keep it that way, I hope to move there from the US after college

Thanks , hope that will end all the tin foil whining

 

[Machjo]

Well just to clarify that it wasn't the Canadian government nor VANOC that made French the first language. I know it was brought up before, but French is the first language of the Modern Olympics. If you look at other opening ceremonies, all of them open with french. Salt Lake city, Beijing, Torino, Greece all did for sure (I just watched them on Youtube). So don't take offence to it, it wasn't the Quebecois' fault. Your nation still shines brightly to the world. Lets keep it that way, I hope to move there from the US after college

Were there any riots in Salt Lake City as they assumed it was Spanish?:lol:

 

[Risus]

Were there any riots in Salt Lake City as they assumed it was Spanish?:lol:

LOL! :lol::lol:
:canada:

 

[lunarwinds]

Well they also used Spanish due to the large Spanish population in the west. As you may no, the United States has no official language, only that of a defacto, so be glad you are limited to two. If the Spanish were to overrun the population and become the majority, you might have a Spanish neighbour south of your borders.

I am not aware of any riots however for that does not concern me.

 

[aman12]

Just watched an interview with a proud Canadian family whose son and brother just won our first gold medal. I hope the usual suspects will not complain that there was French spoken since some members did not speak English. In the minds of some on here, is the medal not Canadian because a francophone won it?

 

[talloola]

Just watched an interview with a proud Canadian family whose son and brother just won our first gold medal. I hope the usual suspects will not complain that there was French spoken since some members did not speak English. In the minds of some on here, is the medal not Canadian because a francophone won it?

good point, me thinks, all of a sudden, he will be a true
canadian, by those who are so persnickity about the language.

 

[lunarwinds]

I agree with the two above. Instead of complaining, we should, be cheering on team Canada, Francophone or Anglo-phone. I must say I am sooo happy that finally there has been a Gold won on home soil. Its awesome!

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

As far as I'm concerned, the government has no business funding any project unless it:

1. benefits the most destitute of Canadians,

2. benefits everybody as equally as is reasonably possible.

The Olympics fall in neither category. How do they benefit the guy trying to make ends meet? Looking at it that way, it ought to have been left as a private venture, and if the private sector was not willing to foot the bill, then let another country have it. Canada is a beautiful country and there are plenty of reasons to visit Canada without the Olympics.

Now if we are going to spend on the Olympics, then it would make sense to include the minority cultures on the grounds that it must benefit as many people as possible, including minority groups, as per the criteria above. But I still don't think the government should have funded them to begin with.

That 1, 2, list is not the way govt operates in Canada. If you've ever taken an accounting course, a big part of the job is taxes and depreciation.

Only the US can make the Olympics operate as a private venture. Other nations of the world have no problem funding them thru govt. It is like funding the arts and showcasing your country.

Including minorities is fine in the Olympics, they are part of Canada too. Canada is not ethnically homgenous like Japan. But English Canada has been so demoralized since the British empire faded that the French language appears equal to English to visitors through govt events. Canada thru a govt lens is not a complete picture of the country.

 

[lunarwinds]

I probably have no right to speak on these subjects but I do agree. The government funding is not really bad. I think that, like other nations, Canada should show the world its true colours by inviting the world to such events hosted on home soil. Whether or not the investment in the Olympics show any results or revenue (which in long term is doubtful) the country has been showcased. Vancouver will appear to the world as another great city and people will look into it when migrating to Canada. Whistler will be a must see when people visit Vancouver. Even if none of this occurs, it will, hopefully raise Canadian morale.

I know that in a sense of investment, it doesn't seem that logical, but in my opinion it was a good move on Canada's part. Canada must still compete with other countries in the world economy and showing the world the power of the Canadian economy and people through such events could draw more companies to place their business in Canada. Yes it is a gamble, but what isn't? In the "world" of economics really nothing is for certain. Even if the Vancouver Olympics do not break even or make any revenue for Canada, they will be remembered.