After the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C.: Mending Canadian-U.S. Ties

During NBC's coverage of 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C., it's a mystery how many viewers in America took the time to watch one of the most meaningful linkages between Canadians and Americans. No, I'm not talking about the epic hockey matches between the two countries or the fact that we didn't mind (either) that Canada is better at Curling than we are. I'm talking about Tom Brokaw's brilliant interstitial reports between sports coverage that showcased the deep linkages between Canada and the United States in commerce, tourism and humanitarianism, just to name a few.

If you saw these periodic segments as an American, you felt a solid bond that's been hidden in the shadows for generations within the realms of pop culture. And the reason for its repression was because pop culture has long been a societal guidepost in America to measure the worth of anything. With such impressions of the world around us, the impressions of Canadians have been mostly non-Olympian in quality where their health care system, language inflections and general independence takes precedence in being mocked.

Where did all the ribbing start before we parodied everything that moved in Canada through the 90's movie satire "Canadian Bacon" or TV's "South Park?" Back in decades prior to the 80's, there wasn't all that much talk about Canada in the States. There seemed to be more of an indifference here to anything they were doing up there, even though some of the greatest talent in music and comedy were being formulated during the time. Finally, when the 80's rolled around, Canadian comedic talents had found their way onto our TV airwaves. Many of them merely managed to poke fun at their own Canadian culture.

It seemed to be about that time when America started paying more attention to Canadian culture and some of its idiosyncrasies. A lot of it, though, was filtered through satire. This managed to give the irony that even though we were connected via a land mass, Canada and America seemed more akin to two different planets in how we talked, played sports and generally lived life.

That's when the biggest rib occurred: The Canadian inflection of certain vowels. It's impossible to pin down exactly when the first reference to Canadian pronunciation of "about" and "ay?" occurred here in the States. 1995's "Canadian Bacon" was arguably one of the first movies in pop culture to take Canadian pronunciations to levels where everybody had to mimic the inflections every time they heard them.

We did this despite the reality that Canadians really say something closer to "aboat" rather than "aboot." No, not every Canadian says "ay?" after each sentence either.

Eventually, this and Canada's controversial health care system started a streak of "Us and Them" the last 20 years where borders made us close yet so far. It eventually led to Canadians catching on to our snark and unleashing the same on us that insinuated we were turning into a neighborly annoyance. All of this was built into an over-generalized reality that was spoken from the mouths of those who'd never placed one foot north of the border to go beyond the caricatured view.

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One thing I've known for a while before Vancouver, B.C. hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics: Vancouver frequently cited the NW quadrant of the United States as being their brotherly neighbors. I've seen evidence of this for years with consideration of them being an adopted part of the United States and, I'd like to think, vice versa. Not that the Northwest U.S. necessarily adopted all of Canada's traits. Yet it's that small bridge that's been a long-standing starting point in realizing the symbiotic relationship America and Canada. The only other connection between Vancouver, B.C. and the rest of America has been in adjectives used to describe its natural beauty when tourists visit there.

I knew that once the Olympics started there, a lot of people from America would visit, experience Canadian culture firsthand and come away with a new view they never understood before. While that probably happened to a small fraction of the American people, everybody else has to rely on the standby barometer of pop culture to process their views. Despite the annoyance of west coast tape delay in their coverage, NBC was brilliant at showing Canadian culture from the perspective of reality; almost to the point of it being overwhelming in the scope of what many haven't noticed.

If the views of random Canadian citizens on the streets of Vancouver weren't enough, we also had the tragic though epic character of figure skater Joannie Rochette, the down-to-earth charm of ice dancing pair Virtue & Moir, the seemingly more centered male figure skater Patrick Chan, the first Canadian gold medal glory of Alexandre Bilodeau and the celebration of the epic Canadian hockey team to name just some.

All of these athletes demonstrated grounded attitudes from the typical athlete and lacking bravado even when getting a gold medal. Interviews with them showed attitudes and personalities that are all too rare. With cameras catching this up close and personal, a whole new generation must have calculated all of it in a favorable way.

Later, the earlier-mentioned Tom Brokaw short documentaries during Olympics coverage reminded us of the more profound Canadian-American connections. Perhaps these were used as bathroom or food breaks for many viewers. If they did, many missed the forgotten perspective of Canada helping us during WWII and 9/11. Plus, we were given evidence that Canadians are the most soft-spoken people on the planet while finding out that the U.S. is their top tourist destination over the Canadian mainland.

No matter if these Brokaw segments were missed en masse--the entire picture was made loud and clear: Things aren't the same now between the U.S. and Canada as they were in the 20 years prior. As imperfect technically as the Games might have been, the human interest connection is one that should stave off the parodies and the language inflection impersonations indefinitely.

The Olympics want similar situations of interest after each Olympics. It may have worked periodically in other countries, but Canada should set off a respect boon over the inevitable tourist boon once the totality of who they are settles in.

After it does, watch out for those Canadian language inflections to become assimilated into the most unlikely parts of the United States. Watch out, also, for "O Canada" being a new American earworm. That only happens when respect is finally garnered.

It helps alter the more microcosmic notion that it's really been a boat over a boot.