We need some Olympic fever, Nov. 11

Did you see the Olympic flame come in to Victoria?

Omigod, I was in tears as Gregor Robertson walked away from the aircraft with the flame in a glass container. A regular lady with the lamp, he was come to make us all feel better.

And when speedskater Catriona LeMay Doan – some thighs on that gal – and triathlete Simon Whitfield took it on that first leg, I was so overcome with emotion, I thought I’d pass out. What I did was go into the bathroom and throw up.

Puleeze, if they were carrying more swine flu vaccine I could understand the jubilation. I get more teared up watching footage of Terry Fox or seeing old soldiers on Remembrance Day march to the cenotaph.

Then there’s all the speculation about who will light the big torch at the end: Rick Hansen, Betty Fox, Nancy Green, Jim Pattison, Bryan Adams, Roberto Luongo?

After Ali in Atlanta, they’ll have to go a way to get my attention.

The protesters didn’t really have much of an impact as they performed a little street theatre and held up traffic for a while in the downtown. With $32 million being spent on the relay along with an additional $18 million to assist community torch celebrations, Vanoc’s not going to let a bunch of naysayers spoil their party with a lot of talk about alternate uses for all that money; certainly not when Furlong’s Follies are promising to bring Canadians together.

I’m sure this will spell the end of the separatist movement in Quebec once the torch has passed through La Belle Province.

Quebec is where GlaxoSmithKline makes its H1N1 vaccine and last week it announced a bit of a hiccup in the production process to accommodate pregnant women, which meant that there would be a delay in getting the shots out to an increasing number of anxious Canadians eager to avoid the pandemic. The B.C. torch team – the staff, not the bearers – were given priority access over other high-risk groups so that they wouldn’t spread the pig plague to some of the more remote communities on the relay.

This mustn’t have sat very well with Olympic protesters and people in high risk groups, including children whose parents want to protect their kids or at least keep them in school while they go to pilates class.

As it is, many Canadians are still undecided about whether to get the vaccine, which was being touted by the experts as quite safe and free of nasty side effects.

I have not had a seasonal flu shot for a few years and have been flu free for just as long.

I try to keep myself in shape, I use lots of anti-bacterial lotion and I eschew physical contact, unless, of course, I am paying for it.

In a recent Globe and Mail, poll David Suzuki, the Guru of Green, said he would get the shot and was “astounded” at people for not doing the same.

Do we think that governments and doctors and scientists are trying to poison us? he asks.

Dave is a pretty well-respected guy, but is old enough that he’s probably out of the woods on the flu thing.

If they really want people to get the shot, they could use athletes and younger, hotter celebrities to convince us. Or better yet, offer us money.

I’m still undecided and, as it turns out, I will have more time to think about it due to the production delays. Maybe by that time the pig will have peaked. Til then, I’m sticking with my home remedy, rum and Coke.

Lest we forget, in all the Olympic hoopla, Wednesday is Remembrance Day, when we honour the veterans of war for making Canada safe for torch relays.

It’s a shame we don’t seem to show the same enthusiasm for celebrating Nov. 11 as we do for the Olympics, where few people ever die during competition – except maybe in the biathlon – and the losers are not put into prisons or work camps until the competition is over.

If you lose at Whistler, it just means you won’t be getting free drinks at the bar or access to the really cute girls and guys.

See you at the Peace Park. Free flu shots for the first 200 people. Weeping is allowed.

Tim Tyler is a local postal worker and freelance writer who lives in Ruskin.

+More Opinion Headlines
<Back to Mobile Edition