I am Canadian, eh?

It's a wonderful time to be Canadian. Sure we've hosted the Olympics before ... but perhaps we were too young of a country to appreciate that patriotism and pride were not "impolite".

As a Canadian who spent close to 10 years in the good ole US of A ... and witnessed patriotism first hand (heck, my eyes used to water on July 4th at the unified spirit of pride around me) ... Canadian's self-effacing nature was that much clearer in my mind.

It seems we've always been a country ready to say "excuse me" or sit back and let another go first. Well mannered, to say the least.

Maybe the country has grown up ... or maybe the Vancouver Olympics organization has to be commended for sparking a fire in the hearts of all Canadians that goes beyond medals and athletes. The brilliance of a torch relay that started months ago and that touched every small town and large city across Canada was a stroke of genius. We have begun to "believe".

Like oh so many Canadians, we watched the relay ... and then through serendipity found ourselves at a sport arena with an Olympic torch. Stefani was awe-struck ... and so proud to have her picture taken holding a torch that had held the flame.

We're glued to the television set ... watching, cheering ... and swelling with pride. We won't win the most medals ... but our medal winners have heart and soul ... they're pure Canadian!! We don't help our athletes in the same way as other countries ... we can't ... we're too small. 33 million Canadians ... that's practically the population of NY state.

Let's just hope that this pride and patriotism and appreciation for the uniqueness of our fair land continues ...

It's not a bad thing to be proud of who we are ... it's not a bad thing to be different from our neighbours to the south ... let's embrace who we are for who we are!

Go Canada Go!