“This country is a blessing for the world” - Donald Sutherland

During the wrap-up at the end of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, CTV's Ben Mulroney interviewed Donald Sutherland at some point and asked whether these Olympics were perhaps as big as Expo '67 or other landmark Canadian events.

Sutherland said it was bigger. And, in his own inimitable way, he went on to deliver the parable of two wolves that has been floating around the internet for a while, which goes something like this:


An old Cherokee chief was telling his grandsons what life would be like for them...

There is a  fight going on inside me, he said.
It is a fight between two wolves and it never stops.
One wolf is evil - he is anger, sorrow, regret, jealousy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, self-doubt, false pride, and ego.
The other wolf is peace, joy, kindness, faith, hope, serenity,  sympathy, generosity, truth, humility, compassion, and love.
The same fight goes on inside everyone.
 
One of the grandsons then asked of the grandpa,
"Which wolf wins?"

The old chief simply replied,
"The one you feed."
 
Then Sutherland went on to say, "the wolf that we feed in this country is the wolf of generosity and kindness".

"We have demonstrations but we don't say you're either with us or against us."


“This country is a blessing for the world”


Interestingly, there are several references to this interview around the internet and on Twitter, and buried in comments on blogs here and there. But, I am unable to find either the text, video or audio of the interview anywhere.

(I believe the photo is of Sutherland in his customary seat at Olympic Stadium, where he was a regular at Expos' games.)

They said it couldn't be done = Olympic Bil-Duh-Bare Pavilion

In the big rush to find things to criticize at the Vancouver Olympics, not much has been overlooked.

Certainly the Canada Pavilion has taken a couple of pot shots, even though the feds did their best to hide this embarrassment as carefully as possible (it only opened after the games had begun...).

It has been called everything from "rinky-dink" to a "temporary tent" to "an ugly pre-fab dud". And for good reason. It is, to be sure, temporary, and looks like nothing more than a chintzy shed with large graphics plastered all over it.

The eyesore cost $10 million and we had to get it slapped up by some Chicago outfit. Those economic impacts are really spreading far and wide...

The facility was originally heralded by organizers with plenty of gusto... "In a downtown celebration site in Vancouver the federal government will erect a Canada Pavilion during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of State (Sport), announced last weekend.
The $10 million, world-class pavilion will showcase Canadian athletes and culture to the world. Amid the excitement of hosting an Olympic Games, the Canada Pavilion will be a major focal point for Canadian fans and for visitors around the world to learn about the amazing innovations and heritage in Canada."

However reality has been less than impressive and less than world-class. Some pundits are going so far as to suggest that the federal government doesn't have a clue what they're doing, which wouldn't surprise me in the least.

For my take, I find that our Canadian pavilion building expertise reminds me a lot of the Build-A-Bear Workshop. That most fantastical wonderland, in power centres and malls across Canada and the U.S, where your kids can watch a sad-looking toy get the stuffing knocked into it right in front of their eyes and then take it home with them, all for about $43.50. How can you tell I was not any more impressed with Build-A-Bear Workshop than I am with the Bil-Duh-Bare Pavilion?

The waste of it all is rather astounding. But, rather than just be a critic, I wanted to offer something constructive, so here's what I would suggest next time....

Give the $10 million to Habitat for Humanity or their Canadian equivalent. Tell them they have to put up something good and take it apart after it's over and they get to keep all the leftover cash and everything they can salvage. End result: Canada Pavilion rocks and what probably something like 50 underprivileged families get houses built...