It's about that Time.....

For the Winter Olympics in Vancouver to start. Nothing quite matches the feeling of having the Olympics in your hometown. Despite all the cost overruns, and weather uncertainty, plus the massive bill we will be getting there is something about these games that just makes me proud to be a Canadian, and even more important, a Vancouverite. I was given the priviledge to witness the Opening Ceremony Dress Rehearsal last night and it is phenominal. Of course, I don't want to spoil the surprise (also because I don't want to piss off Vanoc), but let me just say that it plays to our strengths for the most part. By that I mean geographic and multicultural diversity. Take from that whatever you want. The cauldren lighting was not performed so I have no idea who will light it or what to expect (see post below). I do have some more ideas on who will light it, these coming in from left field. The first is to find a way for Terry Fox to light it using archival footage and digital rendering to make it possible. The next is all of the audience (and perhaps the world having a hand in lighting it), not sure how it would work but in this day in age of internet and such I'm not counting it out.

It looks like Gretzky won't be the last, but he almost will certainly play a part in the proceedings. John Furlong said he won't be the one, but he is in town and coyly ducked media questions about it. My pick is for Gretzky to hand off to the eventual one. Others that have been ruled out are Gaetan Boucher, and almost certainly Trevor Linden and Steve Nash who ran with the Torch today. Betty Fox also has ran with the Flame which means she prolly won't get the nod either.

Some people though who have been quiet which leads me to speculate that they might still have a part to play are Joe Sakic, Bobby Orr, perhaps Mario Lemieux, Karen Lee Gartner, Cindy Klassen, Nancy Green Raine, and Brian Orser who might have provided Canada with it's best olympic home soil drama in Calgary with the Silver Medal.

In less than 24 hours we will know the result and I'm sure it will be amazing. Stay tuned.

******March Update*******

Well it was an interesting opening ceremonies to say the least. The Olympics were a lot of fun here in Vancouver. Just a note about the prospective torch lighters. Well I guess John Furlong was sort of right, Wayne Gretzky wasn't the one, but one of four including Catriona Le May Doan, Steve Nash, Nancy Greene Raine, and Rick Hansen bringing the torch into the stadium. Of course in typical Vancouver fashion we managed to screw it up, but then laughed it off and turned it into a big joke at the closing ceremonies.