This whole debate about who should light the Olympic cauldron in Vancouver on Friday night is so, well, Canadian.

We all know it should be Wayne Gretzky, or that he should at least have, ah, a hand in it. But people still wonder if it should be someone else, if somehow it should be someone even more special, when there is everything right about Gretzky being that person - or one of them. We are a nation of doubters sometimes.
 
Anyway, there are no shortage of worthy candidates for the honour. Betty Fox, Terry's mom; Nancy Greene-Raine; Karen Magnussen; Cindy Klassen; the list goes on. All worthy candidates, but the Great One should be The One.
 
At various times we've thought perhaps Gretzky along with Betty Fox would be the ideal scenario and I still believe that. Or Gretzky along with Nancy Greene-Raine, the co-athletes of the past century in Canada together on the biggest sporting stage. Perfect. Or perhaps all three. Or just Gretzky on his own.
 
He was arguably the greatest player in 'our' game, the sport we don't just embrace every four years, but every day. He was certainly the greatest player of his time. He was as close to royalty in this country as an athlete can get (remember the wedding and the trade?).
 
He is also an Olympian, having played in 1998 in Nagano and been the executive director of Team Canada in 2002 in Salt Lake City, when Canada won gold and Gretzky delivered the pivotal rallying speech, and again in 2006 in Turin, an altogether forgettable experience, for Gretzky personally and for the team as a whole.
 
And please, don't give me any of that bunk of his Canadian status being diminished because he lives in the United States and because Gretzky didn't publicly endorse the proposed hijacking of the Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton. He was coach and part-owner of the team and was stuck in an untenable position, where any answer would be perceived by one side as the wrong.

His only option was to keep quiet until the saga played itself out.
 
He is a face, too, that everyone knows in Canada and in many parts of the world. He is one of our greatest athletes and ambassadors ever, a guy who always answered the call to represent his country.
 
Anyway, there are virtually no bad choices and lots of right ones and Gretzky is one of those right choices.

He deserves the honour and will likely receive it.