Olympic fever is caaaatchiiiiing. Ahhhhh! Well, at least in Canada. Everything kicks off so soon, people are all rushing out West to watch it, and it’s very exciting. I obviously don’t remember the 1988 Olympics, since I wasn’t born for a few months after, so this is probably the most exciting thing to happen to Canada that I can remember!
Of course, the advertisements are out in full force, but most of them are very nice and genuine. I like the “We were made for this,” commercials a lot. They fill me with fuzzy Canadian pride. Sappy inspirational things related to Canada really strike a cord with me, because I am a very patriotic Canadian, despite my dislike toward the current government and various other issues we have.
Obviously, someone needs to ruin it for everyone, and that someone this time around was Pepsi. They started this campaign to create a chant to encourage our athletes. The chant?
“Eh! Oh! Canada, go!”
Uh… excuse me? Now might be a good time to point out that the only time anyone I know has said “eh” has been while mocking foreigners for thinking we say “eh.” It might also be a nice time to mention that national pride can’t be manufactured by a pop company. Especially an American pop company. Just… just… ugh.
I think our usual “Go, Canada, go!” might be sufficient, actually. We won a pretty good amount of medals last time!
I do not like the Winter Olympics. I guess it’s not really their fault they’re in Vancouver this year which means filming for Supernatural has to stop for five weeks while it’s going on… but I still do not like them.
I do not like them even more now that I found out that they’re only going to be screened on paid television. I can’t even watch them!
*grumps*
I’ve never heard a Canadian say eh. I’ve heard more than a few Minnesotans say eh. And I grew up saying eh even though I lived in Wisconsin because my grandparents said it – and they were Dutch. How did it ever get attributed to Canada? I’m sure they say it somewhere up there, but I’ve never actually heard it.
Oh well, eh?
I used to live in Canada, but now that I’m in the US, those that know about my Canadian background always make fun of me for the “eh” thing. Seriously, where and how did people start attributing the whole “eh” thing to Canadians? All my years living in Canada and I’ve never once heard anyone say “eh”. Heck, I hear it more in the US from Americans making fun of Canadians and saying it -__-
I think people say “eh” more than they realise. Not specifically Canadians, though — as an Australian I have caught myself saying “eh” a fair few times. Like, often when my cat is nagging me for food, I’ll ask him something like, “So you’re hungry, eh?” and then he’ll meow and then I’ll feed him. But it’s not a very meaningful word, so kind of like “um” or “uh”, I think people skip over it to a large extent when they register what people say.
Well, either that, or I’m an undercover Canadian.
Or an undercover wannabe Canadian who fails because Canadians don’t say “eh”. But I did have a Canadian teacher who occasionally said “eh” — not that I ever noticed, but others evidently did, because sometimes they would laugh at him for doing so (this is other teachers, of course).
That is an awful chant, though. Any reason why Pepsi thought “Go, Canada, Go!” had to be replaced? o_O I know the Australian chant is “Let’s go Aussie, let’s go!” which I don’t particularly like, but hey… if people want to say it, they can.
Channel Nine here has been trying to make me care about the Winter Olympics through constantly playing ads during the cricket. But I don’t. The only gold medal I remember Australia winning was some skating medal where our skater was coming last, and then everyone else fell over, so Australia won. Of course Channel Nine is reminding us of this story in an attempt to inspire us…
I can’t wait to start watching the Winter Olympics, although in England they’re on in the wee hours of the morning so looks like I’ll be recording them
I can’t wait for London 2012, so I can imagine how excited you are!
Well, I guess I must be one of the few who has heard a Canadian say “eh”. One of the doctor’s I work with is from Canada and he says eh all the time.
Ice Skating, Yay!!! Go Canada! See even us Americana can support outside countries
Pepsi is just after money so don’t let them bother you.
I expected myself to be more excited being as I was born in Vancouver (I now live in Victoria.)
But the more I read about certain elements, the more I can’t think any good thoughts about it whatsoever.
Gordon Campbell is destroying BC in order to make this possible. The cuts to healthcare, school programs, and funding programs over the last few years have been horrific. I think they’re something like 7 billion over budget. The poverty situation is growing more and more. The drug problems are getting worse. Victoria has changed a lot since i moved here 10 years ago.
Because I obsess about the state of the world every second of my life, I can’t see the oylmpics as anything other than a colossal waste of money. A corporate excuse to put counties into even more debt, generate extra wealth (merchandise junk), and distract the people from looking at real issues.
We could have been developing low income housing, or working towards cleaning up the drug problem that’s getting out oh hand here. But all our money is going to building fancy ski resorts and housing complex’s for the Olympics.
I just want to note that I’m not against what they stand for. Achieving the height of human physical excellence is most admirable. It’s just how they’re being used and profited on at the expense of the people who really need help from this government right now.
I didn’t even know about this whole ‘eh’ thing until last week. To be honest, I know nothing at all about Canada. :L
But it’s the same as foreign people(particularly Americans, I have to say) thinking the Scots say things like ‘Och aye the noo’ all the time…the only time I’ve ever heard a Scottish person say that is when we’re mocking people who think we do.
It annoys me so much when you see episodes of things like The Simpsons or Family Guy with ‘Scottish’ characters, and it’s just Americans talking in absolutely terrible Scottish accents and being really stereotypical. I want to throw things at the TV.
The winter Olympics is the only kind of sports I watch, at least parts of it
Norway usually do pretty well in the skiing sports, so that’s fun. And the sound of the commentators and bells of people cheering the skiers on makes me all warm and fuzzy inside reminding me of my grandfather watching skiing on the TV when I was young 
Not that I really watch the Olympics, but it’s a nice background noise while I’m doing other things
I actually HAVE heard someone say “eh”! It was in the Ottawa valley, so, yeah, it’s full of hosers, and they say “eh”.
I’m still not going to use that chant, though… how silly. I will just scream incoherently. That works too.
I find your patriotism refreshing! I am American and (cough)…I’ll admit it, I’m not very patriotic, and I haven’t really met anyone patriotic in quite a while (aside from the kid who screamed because the flag hit the ground in Biology today…but he’s a nut case anyhow.) I also find the Pepsi commercial cheer or whatever kinda funny, but then again I’m not Canadian. I know not all Canadians say “eh” and it’s a huge stereotype, but I just got the image of those two moose off of Disney’s “Brother Bear” in my mind…heh.
Pepsi? Really? Wow…
That chant probably won’t stick.
I say “eh” all the time. At first I didn’t even know that “ay” was written as “eh” but when I found out, the stereotype suddenly made sense to me!
I don’t see why they would put it in a chant, though. “Eh! Oh!” just sounds weird
It must be so exciting to actually be where all the action is. I am really excited to watch the winter olympics. I bet you’re even more excited considering it’s there!
My maid of honor and best friend is from Canada. I’ve never heard her say “eh” and now that she lives in the states she always gets crap for it. It’s so annoying, especially witnessing it first hand hanging out with her.
I feel kind of left out on the whole Olympic fever thing. I hate the Olympics. I think they’re rubbish. Maybe, I just don’t get it.