Through the Olympics so far, The New York Times has fostered a strange obsession with the Canadian psyche.
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Vancouver: Like New York City, but with mountains
- February 20, 2010 5:59 PM |
- By Erin Valois
Story provided by
By Dan Kaszor, National Post
Through the Olympics so far, The New York Times has fostered a strange obsession with the Canadian psyche.
It was most obvious this Wednesday with Timothy Egan's piece "Allez Canada!" analyzes Canada's somewhat awkward and self-aware sense of sense of itself during the games.
He then goes on to start pumping up Canada as if we were some sort of model with body-dysmorphic disorder:
Why the lack of self-esteem? Canada -- snap out of it! You're gorgeous, baby, you're sophisticated, you live well. No need for an apology.
Followed by a litany of what makes Canada great: high medal count per capita, universal health care (can't have a love fest for Canada without mentioning universal health care), low murder rate and safe banks (yes, in this day and age that is a selling point). And he finishes it off by calling Vancouver Manhattan with mountains.
This isn't the only New York Times delve into the mind of Canadians. On Friday they posted a feature "Inside the Rings: If it Wasn't for Those medaling Americans" about Canada's "Own the Podium" program. There they basically deconstruct the main issue with Canada's medal tally so far: they're doing pretty well, but it would be more of a triumph if the Americans weren't doing better. It's basically the same argument that Bruce Arthur made in his column and on Saturday's National Post Olympic podcast.
The strange thing was that it cast the story from the Canadian perspective; even though the American's are mentioned in the headline, the story isn't about how Scooby Doo U.S. has triumphed over Old Man Canada, it's about specifically how Canada has done in the games. With a little bit less background on some of the Canadian athletes mentioned it could have been something written for CBC.
Finally, the Times ran a piece on Saturday about the American disappointment about televised Olympic coverage ... from Canada. One of the unintended effects of Olympic coverage moving from CBC to CTV was that many northern U.S. cities which get CBC to their cable boxes don't get CTV. And have to deal with infuriating NBC tape delayed coverage.
In all it seems as if the Gray Lady has a bit of an infatuation with Canada. Maybe after they Olympics she should stay. We hear it's just like Manhattan, but with mountains.
About the Author
- Bruce Arthur Bruce Arthur is the National Post's national sports columnist. A Vancouver native, he has been with the Post since 2001, and a columnist since 2005. He is covering his second Olympics, after the 2008 Games in Beijing. He expects these Games to be slightly less propagandistic, and for China to win slightly fewer medals.
- Joe O'Connor Joe O'Connor is a roving sports feature writer with an open-ended beat. He joined the National Post in 2002, and has spent the past seven years bouncing from sport to sport, offering fresh perspectives and delivering unique stories wherever he goes. Whether it has been getting Don Cherry to open up about his love life; George Chuvalo to talk about heartbreaking loss; or racing down the side of a mountain with former Crazy Canuck, Dave Irwin, the veteran Postie chases a story wherever it leads. Before joining the newspaper he was a two-time silver medalist at the National Magazine Awards. Vancouver will be his first Olympics.
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