CLASH OF TITANS

After Sunday's Olympic Gold performance, the New York Times' description of the game concluded that..."Canadians, weary of being considered an outpost of the British Crown or a conquered territory of American pop culture, see hockey as a way to define themselves on their terms."

Perhaps somewhat unlike our performance in the Olympics, we natives of the northern side of the continent's border may have to walk a less aggressive tightrope when it comes to our next clash with American titans.

Last fall, the Chair of Canada's Battlefields Commission, Andre Juneau, stepped-down in the wake of a summer controversy over cancelled plans to re-enact the historic "Battle of the Plains of Abraham" in Quebec City on its 250th anniversary. Numerous plans are already in the works for re-enactments and other celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of Canada's victory in the "War of 1812" in less than a couple of years.

The problem is that our American neighbours have a decidedly different perspective about the outcome of that 200 year old confrontation. I have written about this before. It's not just Johnny Horton's iconic 1959 tune "The Battle of New Orleans"...Connie Barrone, the Manager of the "Sackets' Harbor (New York) Historic Site" fueled America's creeping revisionism about the outcome of the war in the fall of 2008. Quoted in the "National Post", when it was pointed out to Ms Barrone that the USA lost the war, she replied: "Historical or aesthetic interpretation must be made by the viewer"...Read: It's in the eye of the beholder!

A six minute television short from the Olympics by NBC anchor Tom Brokaw to explain Canada to Americans went viral on "You Tube" (60,000 views in Canada so far). It's opening sequence is of the "Peace Arch" tribute to the War of 1812 - "May These Gates Never Be Closed". Despite defeats by Issac Brock with Laura Secord at Queenston Heights; the assault on Washington D.C. and the sacking of the White House on August 24, 1814; and the Battle at Crysler Farm, near Ottawa...or in spite of them American historians have concluded that the War of 1812 really just signals the "real" conclusion to the U.S. struggle for its autonomy from the British begun with the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. That's where we disagree.

From Gettysburg, to Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Richmond and at virtually every historic battlefield, our American cousins revel in re-enacting significant moments of their history. The next Olympic Winter Games in 2014 in Sochi may conceivably play host to a rematch of Sunday's Vancouver game. It's over the years in between that we may struggle not to offend.

IT'S A MONEY THING!

Sometime it's helpful for one's perspective to view an important Canadian issue from the American side of the border. The Winter Olympic Games which are about to get underway in Vancouver will dominate and colour our national outlook for the next several weeks.

Not so here in the USA; (I might add) where despite NBC's staggering $820-million bid for the Olympic TV rights; this weekend's Miami football Super Bowl, and the February 14th NASCAR, Daytona 500, are the dominant concerns of sports enthusiasts...I digress!

These Vancouver Games, and all the Olympic Games through the end of the 20th Century and into the current millennium; are all about money. A far cry from the intent and the spirit (and surely a massive disappointment) of the "father of the modern games", Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

And, not just about NBC's $820-million bid for the American TV rights. In a partnership venture CTV and Rogers Communications (Mortal enemies though they be in the cable fee for broadcast dispute at the CRTC) reportedly outbid the CBC by as much as $50-million for the Olympic rights in Canada, and now can't find enough sponsors to pay their monstrous reportedly $150-million bill.

Meantime the foreclosed owners of Intrawest ULC which controls the Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resort, a main Olympic venue, are threatening to sue the Government of Canada for $90-million for "loss of business" during the games. Just where did we lose our way and abandon the "spirit" of friendly international competition?

There is another rivalry that will not be televised starting next week. It is not by accident that Chicago finished "dead last" to Rio de Janeiro in October for the 2016 Summer Games despite President Obama's personal lobbying efforts for the hometown. Money is at the root of that evil also. The issue is one that has implications for most national Olympic Committees, including the COC (Candian Olympic Committee) based in Toronto.

The Olympic brand in each country is owned by the individual national committees. But, it's the IOC (International Olympic Committee) that brokers the auctions for each country's television rights and doles out just a percentage of the gains. For instance the USOC is getting just $105-million of the $820-million paid by NBC for the US rights to the Vancouver games. When that American national Olympic Committee (USOC) announced last July that it was establishing its own "Olympic Cable TV Channel", the International Committee saw the announcement as a declaration of war and punished the Americans with the Chicago defeat.

Greed it seems mocks the spirit of the games, and tarnishes the very lustre of the Olympic Medals and the movement they represent. When will we learn!