Bravo, Canada! More specifically, bravo, Vancouver!

Last night’s Olympic opening ceremonies were nothing short of spectacular. Vancouver welcomed the world with fantastic, visual storytelling of Canadian culture. The display started with Canadian Aboriginals walking on ice that broke up and floated away under the northern lights, which were created by tiered screens hanging from the ceiling of the arena. Projection cameras created the rolling, bouncing northern lights, took us through the lush forests of Canada, wheat fields, and onward to mountainous terrain with snowboarders and skiers.

The opening ceremonies gave us a glimpse into Canadian culture. Personally, I would love to go find the funky, tap-dancing fiddlers and pull up chair, give a listen, and enjoy a good, Canadian beer.

Donald Sutherland’s voice was heard echoing through the arena has he narrated the great, Canadian story. He was one of six Canadians to carry in the Olympic flag, along with Jacque Villeneuve, a race car driver who I used to cheer for; and Anne Murray, a singer who my parents used to listen to when I was kid, and who I called, “Aunt Mary.” Gotta love kids. Yeah, I was cute wearing my little “tony-pales” while sitting on Mom’s lap and listening to “Aunt Mary.”

While we were watching the opening ceremonies, my brother kept saying, “Wow, this better win an Emmy,” and “I can’t believe nothing has gone wrong!” Well, something did go wrong when it came time to light the indoor torch. Four Canadians, including hockey great, Wayne Gretzy, “The Great One,” who I saw play at the Joe Louis Arena many years ago, stood on the arena floor waiting for the four outer legs of the torch to pop up from the floor.

The world waited and watched, some of us praying that Vancouver could continue this perfect show. Unfortunately, one of the “legs” would not spring up from the floor, but the Canadians persevered and proceeded by raising the other three. The four torch-bearers walked to the different columns and lit them from the ground. Three of the torch bearers lit their columns while the fourth stood in the middle holding her torch in the air. The flames shot up the columns to the main center torch and the games began…well, not yet.

The rules state that the Olympic torch must be lit for the whole city to see, so hockey great, torch-bearing, Canadian Wayne Gretzky and his torch were transported through the streets of Vancouver via a GMC pickup truck to the outdoor torch. Gretzky walked up to the outdoor torch, which was the perfect counterpart to the indoor torch, and lit one of the columns on which the flame traveled up to the torch top to light the remaining three column tops and the larger, middle torch. Five flames now burn as one in the great city of Vancouver, Canada.