GREAT MODERN CONSERVATIVE THINKERS

Ummm.... well, actually, .... (sound of crickets) .... there are none. Sorry.

LOSERS NO MORE ???

Last spring, the Toronto Marlies went on an improbably deep run in the American Hockey League playoffs. The team captured, however briefly, the attention of victory-starved Toronto sports fans by making it all the way to the Calder Cup finals, before losing to the Norfolk Admirals. I had the opportunity to watch a game in each round of the playoff run, and enjoyed the terrific atmosphere in the Ricoh Colliseum. Fans were actually having fun and dared to dream about a championship. It was not to be, but the ride was a good one.

In the summer, the Toronto Argonauts, after having engineered one of the biggest blockbuster trades in recent CFL history, lurched through a mediocre season, finishing 9 and 9, only to go on a similar playoff run to the Marlies. The Argos, Toronto's oldest professional sports franchise, knocked off Edmonton and Montreal before demolishing the Calgary Stampeders at home to win the Grey Cup, and become the first Toronto team to win a championship in a few years. True, the CFL has lost some of its lustre in the GTA over the years, and is a small league, but the enthusiasm at Grey Cup time was fun and exactly what the city needed.

This weekend, the Toronto Rock opened the NLL season with a rare two-game road trip to Alberta and swept both games, defeating the Calgary Roughnecks on Saturday night and squeaking out a win against the Edmonton Rush on Sunday. The Rock are perenial powerhouses in the NLL, although last year was a disappointment, exiting the playoffs early: this early fast start indicates that the Rock are going to be in the thick of the battle again this year. A championship is, right now at least, a real possibility.

In the off-season, the Toronto Blue Jays have made several significant moves, acquiring several good-calibre players in trades and free agency. They have reached into the recent past to re-hire John Gibbons to manage the team. Gibbons's strength as a manager, apparently, is in managing pitchers, especially the bull pen, Toronto's problem area for the last few years. With the new manager, new players, and a talented young core of returnees, the Jays have been installed by Las Vegas oddsmakers as the early favourites to win the World Series. That's a long way off, to be sure, but the early signs are good.

All this seems to bode well for long-suffering Toronto sports fans. With one championship already in the bag, good possibilites in the NLL and AHL, a promising baseball season ahead, do they dare dream of turning around the constant pall of losing ??

Sports is nothing if not an exercise in optimism. There's always another game or another season to strive for redemption. If only life were really like that.

Oh yes, the Leafs, Raptors and FC .... well, for the Leafs, it's a short 48 game season. Last year, they were a good team for about the first 50 games until the wheels fell off, so maybe, just maybe they can duplicate the performance and actually make the playoffs. The Raptors, after an abysmal start, are playing with much more confidence and, as of this writing, are roughly 6 games out of a playoff spot.  It will be a long shot, but the playoffs are possible this year. And as for FC ... the less we talk about a losing team in a 4th rate soccer league, the better.

Keep the faith, Toronto. We just might be taken seriously as a "big league" city after all. Dare to dream !!

ANOTHER INCONVENIENT TRUTH

DISCLAIMER:  The views expressed in this post are mine and mine alone. I do not presume to speak for any former colleague, or current or retired teacher. Nor do I presume to speak for any teacher union. If you agree with my comments, great. If you disagree, take it up with me , and leave the teaching profession alone.

Now, for the post:

According to Webster's Dictionary, the definition of a contract is "a binding agreement between two persons or parties." In order for the contract to be binding, the agreement must be entered into freely, and with no coercion or threat involved.

I bring this to your attention in order to try to help any of you outside the teaching profession to try to understand the level of frustration and anger that must be percolating within the profession. The current Liberal government of Ontario is claiming that any political protest by teachers would constitute, in effect, a breach of contract and would be met by punitive measures. The contract in question here is the one imposed upon the profession by Bill 115, which has seriously impacted the collective bargaining rights of the teaching profession. The contract in question was not entered into freely and was the product of coercion and threats on the part of one of the parties, namely the provincial government. The current Liberal government went to the Ontario Labour Relations Board when the public elementary teachers threatened a day of protest ( which was to have occurred today, Friday Jan. 11 ) to declare the protest illegal and, when the Board ruled in the government's favour, the teachers called off their protest and the secondary teachers subsequently called off their protest which was scheduled for next Wednesday.

The smile on Education Minister Laurel Broten's face was of Cheshire-cat proportions. Clearly, the government feels that it has won. The question is whether they have won the battle, or won the war.

My view is that this is far from over. The unions will undoubtedly challenge the root cause of this unrest, Bill 115, in the courts. They may win a court challenge: they may not. But the entire way of teachers going about their business is ruined forever. And here's why:

The elephant in the room, the thing that nobody talks about publicly, is that teachers are absolutely angry. They have every right to be angry. They have been the whipping boys for society, not just in Ontario, but elsewhere, for too long. Society talks a good talk when they say they value teachers, and respect them. But they don't walk the walk: in fact, society is lying, and, sadly, fooling themselves. Much of society dislikes teachers for the standard reasons: teachers are overpaid; they have too much time off; they have gold-plated pensions and benefits plans while I ( the poor working stiff ) have none of these things; the unions are too powerful and hold us to ransom; blah, blah, blah. Society always loves it when a government decides to get tough with teachers, and this is the case here, with a Liberal government desperately trying to gain favour with the voters after several botched initiatives with such things as the horse racing industry, wind turbines, air ambulances, and disputes with doctors.

Well, it goes both ways. Remember, I'm speaking just for myself, but I imagine many still in the profession feel this way. Teachers are angry with society, too. Not just with the government, but with most of society, which just might mean you, the reader. Why? Consider these items:

1) Society is woefully and deliberately uninformed about the current issue of Bill 115, and with all past issues of concern to teachers. To society, it is all about money, vacation, benefits and pensions. Why? Because these issues are easy to think about. Society cannot be bothered to listen to the real reasons for the dispute. It would involve too much thinking, and about things that society has never really thought about before. Most of society works in the private sector, and, therefore, must work under some rather unfortunate conditions. They don't have the wages, vacations, benefits, pensions that they would like to have, and are enjoyed by many public sector workers. Rather than agitate to get better conditions for themselves, many private sector workers want public sector workers to lose their good conditions so that we can all be miserable together. Teachers, society believes, have the best of everything, so society doesn't care when there are real issues. Just take on the teachers, they believe, and everything will be better.

2) Society never supports the teaching profession the way it should be supported. Teachers do an important job, and are entrusted with society's most valuable assets: our children. I'm not saying this is the most difficult job in the world: perfoming surgery, or flying a jet airliner come to mind as being incredibly difficult. But teaching does have its challenges, and I have heard many of my friends outside the profession claim that they could never do the job because the job requires some pretty important and delicate skills. Because of this, teachers need the support of society if they are to do their jobs well. It has been said that good working conditions for teachers means good learning conditions for students. This is absolutely true. Society should not simply open the vaults and pay teachers millions of dollars: nobody is seriously advocating this. But society should try to support teachers  in return for good service. Notice the bold words. This is true in any line of work, in any work environment, or in any profession. Supported workers, workers whose efforts are truly appreciated, workers whose concerns are understood, are more productive, more involved, and prouder of not only their own work, but in the entire job itself. Yet society chooses not to give teachers the support they deserve, and, sadly, often gives teachers criticism, derision, sarcasm, and, worst of all, neglect.

3) Society doesn't want to be inconvenienced. The angry words from outraged parents reported in various media outlets prior to the planned day of protest made it sound that the lost SINGLE day of schooling would be tantamount to a nuclear meltdown. Yet, these are quite possibly the same parents who will keep their kids out of class in order to extend a vacation at Christmas or March break, or sign their kids out of school in order to attend a hockey tournament on a Friday, or take their kids shopping on a Friday to buy a prom dress ( remember that ALL schools have some type of prom now, even for "graduation" from kindergarten ), or when hunting or fishing season opens, etc etc etc. But announce a planned day of protest, and parents start griping that they have to arrange daycare, babysitting, or take a day off work. It's not the issue they gripe about, it's the inconvenience.

Teachers are public sector workers. This means that they work for society.

Well, if that is true, then teachers have a bad boss to work for. Imagine private sector workers who work for an uninformed, deliberately ignorant, unsympathetic, hypocritical, hostile boss: would they be angry? Yes, they would.

So, now you understand the anger felt by teachers. Officially, the anger is directed at the provincial government. But, make no mistake, it's directed at you too. Why? Re-read my comments above.

And that's why this thing isn't going to go away. It won't go away until you, society, do something about it. I suppose you could get mad at my comments and suggest we fire all the teachers and destroy the unions. But that won't solve anything. So, I suggest that you do the right things: get yourselves informed about the real issues, support your teachers, put pressure on the government to do the right thing, and don't gripe when an inconvenience happens.

Have a nice weekend.

IN PRAISE OF OLDER MUSIC

Those of us who came of age in the early to mid seventies lived through an oft-maligned and always controversial period in modern music. If you read pieces by musicologists on this period, it is often described as being one of the most creative times, or an absolute wasteland of pretense and lack of talent. Talk to a person who lived through this time and get a discussion on music started, and you're sure to jump into an often heated debate.

For me, the period from about 1970 to 1976 represents a unique and wonderful time in music. It was a transition of not only style, but indeed the entire approach to music. Before 1970, most of the music listened to by young people was basic rock and roll, with its best exemplar in the so-called British Invasion of the early 60's. But, by the time 1970 rolled around, the Beatles were basically dead, and other Invasion bands had faded into obscurity. Other styles, such as the American surfing genre, featuring bands like the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, had run their course. Psychedelic rock was still in its heyday, but the early deaths of Hendrix, Morrison and Joplin put a pall on the genre. Essentially, the teenagers of the 1960's ( those who could have been my older brothers and sisters ) had grown into young adults and were looking for something more "serious."

In Britain, with the demise of Invasion bands ( the Rolling Stones being the exception ), young musicians put their energies into the creation of a new genre in an attempt to rise above the teenage-angst drivel that characterized  Invasion music. And, miraculously, a new genre was born: Progressive Rock.

For me, as a teen who loved music, I found the emergence of the Prog Rock bands as a revelation. Finally, rock musicians seemed to be taking bold new chances and actually learning to compose, arrange and perform  as serious musicians. I was introduced to the genre by my friends Rob Fraser and Dave Jack. Rob had 8 tracks ( ! ) of the Moody Blues' album "Seventh Sojourn" and Dave was a fan of Yes. Dave had me listen to Yes' "Close To The Edge", and, because of these musical exposures, I was hooked.

For some unknown reason, I find myself looking back at the genre not only with much nostalgia, but also a longing. I watched the half time show at the recent Grey Cup and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. A cadaverous Gordon Lightfoot made me wish for musical legal euthanasia, and the modern artists Carly Rae Jepson and Justin Bieber made me cringe. So, back through the vaults I went looking for salvation. I found it in my old discs of the Prog Rockers.

Just what constitutes Prog Rock is highly debatable and entirely subjective. My definition of Prog Rock has evolved through the years, and puts the genre into three categories:  True Prog Rock, Semi-Prog Rock, and Wannabe Prog Rock. Here is the break-down:

True Prog Rock takes its form in the pioneer bands of the genre. The emphasis is on long, convoluted, thoughtful and original compositions, often arranged into symphonic movements. Inspiration for these compositions often comes from classical and jazz music, literature, philosophical treatises, classical and Biblical sources, and, to be sure, pharmaceuticals. Virtuousity in the instrumentation is essential: these people aren't three-chord guitarists, skiffle drummers, or honkey-tonk pianists. They are among the most gifted players, both technically and creatively, ever heard by the human ear. They eagerly embraced the technical advances of the time: this is the heyday of electronic sound. Most importantly, they displayed complete courage and audacity in their music : these bands were not afraid of anything, and didn't seem to worry about putting out material that flew in the face of established rock music. They had their detractors, for sure, but they won over a legion of followers who knew they were listening to something significant and wonderful.

The bands in True Prog Rock category include the Moody Blues (who learned to move beyond their "Go Now" blues rock of the mid 60's ) , Yes ( perhaps the best practitioners of the genre ), Emerson, Lake and Palmer, King Crimson, Jethro Tull ( of the "Thick As A Brick" era ), and early Genesis ( featuring Peter Gabriel ) . It is interesting to note that all these bands were British.

Once the True Prog Rockers became fashionable, especially on newly formatted FM radio, and concerts on college campuses, other bands began to follow their lead, although with less pretentious overtones. These bands are what I call the Semi-Prog Rockers. Here's where the debate really heats up. Just how do you characterize something that is "semi" anything?  For example, does Led Zepellin qualify as a Prog Rock band? Some say no, because of the heavy American blues influence in many of their songs, and in Robert Plant's vocals, reminiscent of Janis Joplin or Joe Cocker. For me, however, as Led Zepellin evolved, as their song writing became more sophosticated, as John Paul Jones' keyboards took on more electronic and haunting qualities, they sounded very much like True Proggers. But the blues never left them. So, for me, Led Zepellin becomes Semi-Prog, still to be ranked with the True Proggers, but perhaps a bit more palatable for main stream listeners. Other Semi-Proggers would include the Who ( outstanding compositions, but so bloody loud ! ), Uriah Heep ( lyrically impaired, but good players ), Supertramp ( great musicians, but with a Top 40 feel to their songs ) and Queen ( trending into Glam Rock, but still great virtuousos on their instruments).

As the mid-seventies rolled around, the Prog Rock genre became corrupted. Emerson, Lake and Palmer and the Moody Blues disbanded,  Yes and King Crimson went through awkward and messy personel changes, and Peter Gabriel left Genesis, taking the creative heart out of that band. Proggers launched solo careers with mixed results: Gabriel became more mainstream, Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman stayed true to the genre but lost their following, and others turned in medicore efforts. But the influence of True Prog Rock continued to be felt in newer bands.

This is the era of the Wannabes. Perhaps the best example of Wannabe Prog Rock is close to home with Rush. The reason I characterize them as Wannabe Proggers is that they have elements of the genre, but, perhaps in true Canadian style, they have a bit of the head banger in them, especially on some of their early work. Other Wannabes could be bands like Kansas, Styx, Asia, David Bowie, Golden Earring, Tangerine Dream, a good Quebec band called Harmonium, and others. The term "Wannabe" is often used in a derogatory sense, but, for me, I use it in a more complimentary way. Since I am a True Prog follower, when I listen to Rush, for example, and hear the layered compositions and arrangements, and admire the skill of Neil Peart's drumming or Geddy Lee's wonderful bass lines ( so reminiscent of Chris Squire of Yes ), I hear Proggers. But the heavy sound, and Alex Leifson's excellent but mainstream guitar work is more Top 40, and I sigh and say to myself, "they could try harder to be brilliant." But I still admire and enjoy their music and the music of other Wannabes.

The decade closed out with the disillusion created by the stagnant British economy and the repressive regime of Margaret Thatcher. Proggers had left their mark on music and gave way to their creative but extremely angry offspring, the Punk movement. Prog Rock's grandchildren were Grunge and Altenative, all terrific genres of music, but, alas, not quite what their grandparents were. Today, Prog Rock is treated as a curiousity, with slightly amusing reactions of those who were never bitten by the bug. But, for me, and I suspect many others of my time, the Proggers represented the very best of not only the 1970's, but of modern music generally. It will always live on in my heart and soul as the sound track of my youth in the 70's.

Then, along came disco and ruined everything.

THE SUN GETS IT WRONG ..... AGAIN !!

When I taught the English Writing class at my school, one of my favourite units was a unit on Journalism. I had some personal reasons for devoting time to that group of lessons. I had, earlier in my life, harboured thoughts of becoming a journalist. I enjoy reading good journalism, a commoditiy that is becoming more rare in modern society with each passing year. And, most importantly, I felt that it was important for young people aspiring to be good, involved and caring citizens to know the role journalism is supposed to play in our democratic society.

One of the resources I often used in my classes was to bring in the Toronto Sun for the students to study .... as an example of bad journalism. I began by declaring my own bias against this publication, and, to their credit, many of my students disagreed with my judgement, which they were always entitled to do: it provided some good and lively discussions. But, as I went through the paper, we began to realize that the Sun appealed to a certain demographic, and, while that is fair in the competitive world of journalism, we at least became aware of the Sun's approach and biases, and most of us determined that it would never qualify as a "serious" newspaper.

Fast forward to today's Sun's front page. Instead of focussing on the complex issues of stripping workers of their right to bargain collectively and fairly, instead of trying to be balanced in the face of upcoming job actions by teachers in most of Ontario, the Sun instead willfully chose to listen to the fear-mongering words of the Tory education critic, Lisa MacLeod, who raised the alarm bells of what she calls heavy handed tactics of the "union bosses" levying $500.00 fines on teachers who do not comply with the union sanctions, and having their names printed in a union publication she calls the "name and shame" list. She is quoted as saying how outraged she is by the bosses putting "the fear of God" in teachers.

The Sun, in its indignant and blustering style, devoted the front page to decrying the "BULLIES" in the union headquarters.  A pinned list of the possible sanctions was boldly presented: nowhere did the list state that the most important things (classroom instruction, extra help within the stipulated time limits of the contract,  essential supervision ) would continue to be performed. The apple with a worm in it was a nice touch, signifying that, somehow the entire profession of teaching has been corrupted by the worm of .... what ? Evil ? Poison ? Demogoguery ? Vitriol ? Hate ? Coersion ? The list goes on and on.

Wait a minute !! Isn't that the Sun imitating itself in those glowing terms? No, it couldn't be. Well, maybe ...

The truth is, the Sun got it wrong .... AGAIN ! The fact is, no union, and especially the teachers' unions, do anything, including job actions, without the members .... the teachers themselves .... voting. Yes, union executives make their recommendations known, but noone tells members how to vote. Voting is always done by secret ballot, and always after presentations are made to members and time allocated for members to question and, indeed, criticize the union executive. If a union follows the regretable route of establishing job actions, it is because the opposite party in the negotiations, in this case the provincial government, is simply not negotiating, and because the members realize that there is no other alternative to job action. Another fact is this ... it is always in the best interest of union negotiators to get a negotiated settlement. Failure to do so means that the executives risk feeling the anger of its members and being voted out of office. I've seen it happen.

Unions, like any modern organization, use sanctions on members who fail to comply with established practices. In this case, when a union is forced into job action, it must act collectively in order to be effective and, ultimately, bring about a settlement. In all unions, there will undoubtedly be those who do not agree with the planned course of action, even though the course of action was approved by the vast majority of the members. The minority may grouse and complain, and some will oppose the decision of the majority. And some will take deliberate and willfull steps to actively and publicly go against the union's stand and weaken its position. That happened when I was involved in job action. As a member of the union, I wanted to know who the people were who were undermining my attempt to convince my employer that we were serious about our demands, and that we wanted to bargain COLLECTIVELY in order to obtain a good settlement. ( What constitutes a "good settlement"? Any settlement that is agreed upon by both sides in a negotiation. ) And you can bet that I would not be too friendly toward any colleague of mine who deliberately or willfully took my tools away from me. So, the "name and shame" list was necessary and wanted. And, I would want them to be fined because, by weakening the union's position, they were actually prolonging the job action, and effectively taking money from my pocket.

These things seem to be lost on Ms. MacLeod and, of course, our good friends at the Toronto Sun. The picture they paint is an outdated and obsolete one of times before the Guilded Age when union bosses did in fact exercise unjustifiable control over the workers of their time: usually poor, uneducated, desperate and ignorant people fresh off the boat from God knows where.  These bosses were not interested in presiding over a democratic union, but, then again, neither were governments or corporations or businesses of that time period interested in presiding over democratic conditions or situations. That is hardly the description of modern unionized workers. Modern union workers realize that modern corporations and businesses and, hopefully, even governments have evolved and progressed to some form of democracy. Unfortunately, many people fail to see that unions have also progressed. These people comprise the Sun's readership, it seems. And the Tory backbenches.

So, the Sun goes on its merry warpath, blithely using the ravings of a misguided and goofy MPP, and stirring up the pot against teachers and unions .... to what end ? To sell papers to their loyal audience who love a good trashing and wouldn't know a proper way to report news if it bit them in their collective ass.

Which brings me back to the Sun. To be fair, the Sun did indeed provide a useful backgrounder to the "BULLIES" headline ... in a small paragraph at the end of the article. One wonders how many of the readers were able to make it that far before they skipped ahead to the second to last page where today's Sunshine Girl posed in all her lovliness.

When there's boobs and booty, issues and truth be damned, eh Sun ??

MISSING PERSONS CASE FINALLY SOLVED !!

It was one of the longest cold cases in Ontario, certainly in the Greater Toronto Area. Finally, after more than 30 years, a group of people who seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth have been seen alive and well. It is a result that all of us can feel good about and restores faith in the enduring nature of the human spirit.

These people went missing more than 30 years ago. They didn't just vanish in a flash, the victims of a sudden crime. They faded away gradually, due to the neglect of the established order. It was an unlamented passing, barely noticed, barely cared about. An entire generation and more slipped from the collective consciousness.

After a few years, society began to notice their absence. Some voiced concern and vowed to search for them tirelessly. Most, however, shrugged shoulders and muttered words of resignation: things like "it's too bad, but time has passed. Better to move on to other important things."  Gradually, the disappearance of this "lost generation" became a curiousity, something for writers to muse over, or older people to keep in the recesses of their memory.

But, with circumstance and luck, the "lost generation" seems to have stumbled back into our collective consciousness. True, with the passage of several decades, the lost ones do not look anything like what we remember them. But they are here among us, older, wiser perhaps, and completely aware that, with human nature being what it is, they may drift off again into the darkness.

If you want to see these missing people who are now found, if you want to hear their stories of drifting away against the tide of humanity, if you want to learn how it is that the majority can turn their backs on a small group, all you have to do is go down into the core of Toronto and see them.

All this week, they will be present to share their story. You can see them downtown, on the streets, wandering from place to place, looking slightly out of step with the mainstream, trying to forget the past neglect, trying to celebrate that which made them so different from the rest.

And, when you see them, stop for a moment and put yourself in their shoes. They are not all that different from you. All that separates them from the mainstream is a profound love for something special, unique, part of the fabric of our land: something that so many others find odd, even disturbing because it is not as big or flashy as the thing most prefer.

Talk to them and, if possible, join in the celebration of their return from the dustbin of irrelevance.

Join the long-lost and almost forgotten generation of CFL fans who have risen back to prominence for this week's Grey Cup.

ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD

"Glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever."    Napoleon Bonaparte

"Bronze is the new gold."                             James Duthie

On the surface, eighteen medals sounds pretty good. It's not a shut-out by any means, and it equals our second best output of non-boycott Summer Olympic medals. Our athletes did us proud and certainly, for the most part, did their best.

But, a closer examination reveals a mediocre truth. Our tally included just one gold medal. We should be proud of our gold medallist, trampoline athlete Rosie MacLennan. But the single gold is one of our worst achievements in recent Summer Olympic history. In Barcelona in 1992, we earned 7 gold. In Atlanta in 1996, we earned a total of 22 medals, of which 3 were gold, and 11 were silver. It seemed, in the 1990's, that we were on a crest of improvement heading into the new millenium. But, since then, we have tailed off dramatically.

There is an argument against keeping track of medal totals. The argument says that the experience of sending our young athletes to an event of such magnitude is reward in itself. The experience fosters a sense of world-wide comaraderie and is essential in expanding our young people's horizons and creating a world of peace and harmony. Allowing our youth to give their all against their fellow young people is worth the expense and effort to field a team. We should all unite behind the Olympic ideal and cheer on their efforts, no matter what the result.

Nonsense.

This is a quaint and antiquated ideal. Certainly there is value in having people from around the world gathering in peace and honest athletic competition. We all live in hope that, somehow, the world will become a better place because of the Olympic effort.

But to characterize our purpose in sending a team of several hundred athletes to these games for only altruistic reasons is sheer balderdash. If we want to expose our youth to other cultures and other people in different countries, we have student and other youth exchanges for that purpose. If we merely want our youth to participate and try their best in sport, we have minor hockey, little league baseball, and recreational activities for that purpose.

The Olympics is meant to be one of the highest expressions of human endeavour. It is for the glory and wonder of accomplishment that we send athletes to compete in these games. It is for the sports elite of the world, not for our earnest, fresh-faced kids who compete in order to exchange flag pins and addresses with other kids. We send children to compete with athletic monsters, people who train and work hard to achieve miraculous and incredible results. It is a sports form of cannon fodder.

The modern Olympics are professional in every way, and there is no reason to bemoan some kind of loss of innocense. And, in the new consciousness of professional sports, indeed in any sphere of human endeavour at the highest level, there is only one standard of judgement: winning.

Canada needs to grow up about this change. Bronze is no longer good enough. Eighteen medals, which puts us on a level with nations such as Cuba, Hungary, Spain, and the Netherlands, is not good enough. And one gold medal simply means that we are better than nations such as Cyprus, Botswana and Belgium, but not as good as Kenya, Ethiopia and Iran. Surely, if we regard ourselves as a major nation in the world, we must agree that a better performance is needed.

Why should we care about this? Because nations and people want to be taken seriously and want to achieve greatness. There are many ways this can be accomplished: financial and economic wealth and influence, an honest and generous foreign policy, a tolerant and inclusive society, strong and fair laws, a potent and far-reaching military, diplomatic expertise, an innovative and extensive educational system .... all these things are measures of a great society. But surely athletic prowess and excellence has its place in this pantheon. A country's competitiveness, courage, will, innovation, and self-confidence are measured by athletic success.

What does our Olympic performance say about us? It says that we are not competitive, that we are satisfied with second or ( more to the point ) third best, and that we come well-equipped with excuses and tissues to wipe away our tears.

In 2003, my wife and I visited Australia. One of the stops on our travels was the national capital, Canberra. To be honest, Canberra is a rather dull and uninspired capital city, but it is also the home of the world famous and highly successful Australian Institute of Sport. The AIS was formed in 1976, when Australia failed to win a single gold medal at the Montreal Olympics. (If this sounds familiar, by the way, it's because Canada became the first host country to fail to win a gold. We did it again in 1988 at Calgary.) To the Aussies, 1976 was a national failure of will and they resolved to do something about it. They created the AIS to bring about needed reforms in the entire approach Australia took to sports. The AIS has since become a world leader in the recruitment and development of young athletes who have the potential of becoming elite in their sports. The AIS also pioneers research in sports science, psychology and medicine as support mechanisms to aid their athletes in their performance. And the AIS has placed great emphasis on developing coaches of world-class calibre The result of this is that Australia is far more successful in international athletics, not just in the Olympics, but in all sports. And, as a result, Australia, a nation of just 22 million people, is respected and listened to far beyond the scope of its population and location. Australia punches far above its weight.

The United States is also a perennial sports power, not because of a central national sports programme, but because of the power and success of its college and university programmes. The NCAA is legendary in its approach to developing athletes and demanding excellence in all sports endeavours. It is wildly popular with the general public.  It churns out great athletes and coaches who become local and national and international legends. And it is largely privately funded, mostly by school alumni. It works.

Australia and the United States are nations which take sports seriously. Sports and fitness are part of their national cultures and constitute an expression of their national will. Other nations, such as Russia, China and South Korea, offer similar expressions of national will.

There is no equivalent of the AIS or the NCAA in Canada. Instead, we have the recent "Own the Podium" initiative, which is a vague collaboration of the private and public sectors to fund sports. It has had some success, particularly in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. But it can be argued that it was implimented as a stop-gap, out of necessity in order to avoid another fiasco of underachievement that we saw at Montreal and Calgary. Whether "Own the Podium" can be given credit for the performance in London, or can sustain winter success in Socchi and beyond is questionnable. The odds don't look good.

It is time for Canada to get serious about sports. It is time that all of us, private sector, government at all levels, and especially the population at large, get serious about OUR committment to sports. We need to create institutions like the AIS to develop not only world class athletes, but world class coaches, trainers, researchers and officials. We need to find more money to do this. We need to become more active ourselves: we are our own worst enemy because we follow only one sport religiously ( hockey), and then put our emphasis on other professional sports such as baseball, basketball, soccer, Canadian or American football and golf. After that, international sports are relegated to the back pages of the sports section, if they are covered at all. And amateur sport just doesn't exist. International and amateur sports must be placed front and centre on our collective radars. Otherwise, there will be no Usain Bolts emerge from Canada.

You don't need to be a sports fan to agree with this. Just do the following:

- insist on more government funding for sports and fitness: open your wallet
- insist on more media coverage of international and amateur sport and not just the NHL, NFL, CFL, NBA, MLB, MLS etc.
- get out to watch a swim meet, a track meet, gymnastics or volleyball in your community
- encourage all children to play sports, for fun at first, but then to improve as they age
- support organizers and officials in your community and DON'T ABUSE referees unless you can do a better job: if you can do better, BECOME AN OFFICIAL OR COACH
- get off the couch yourself and get fit.

We can grow as a nation, we can achieve our destiny, and we can feel better about ourselves and our future if we get more competitive and successful. The Olympics is a good place to start.