This Is Vancouver

It should have been a happy ending to a happy two months for Vancouver. Sure, there was the initial fear that the Vancouver Canucks could get eliminated in the first series, but they played hard and went all the way to the Stanley Cup finals. For those two months, suspense came with joy, as well as the hope that maybe a Canadian team would bring the Stanley Cup home for once.

My passport tells me I am Canadian, yet I had never shown any interest in hockey. I had seen exactly one hockey game from start to finish, and that was only because I was offered a ticket to a game a few years ago. When this year's Stanley Cup playoffs started, the only reason I was concerned about the result of the Canucks' Game 7 against Chicago was because I heard Vancouverites could riot if the Canucks lost. Thankfully, they won and proceeded to the next round. I left the Canucks behind and went backpacking for four weeks.

As far as I was concerned, hockey was in a faraway land while I was having the time of my life in Europe. I happened to be in Prague the day the Czech Republic was playing against Russia in the Ice Hockey World Championship -- I remember thinking there was a decent chance that it could have been against Canada instead of Russia -- but that was the only time hockey made an appearance on my trip. Little did I know I would come home to a crazed Vancouver, a city ripe with anticipation for what could be the first Stanley Cup win for Canada in 18 years.

The city I came home to could best be described as Canuck Kingdom. Car flags, t-shirts, store fronts, trade fairs...you name it, it was Canuck-ified. Even my mother knew the names of the more famous players. The finals had just started, and with the Canucks winning the first two games out of seven against the Boston Bruins, the Cup felt so close. Just two more wins, we want the Cup. The crowds of Granville Street were more excited than ever before.

Fast forward to June 15, 2011; the Canucks were now on game 7. The Canucks' three wins had taken place in Vancouver, and the Bruins' three wins had taken place in Boston. So maybe there was hope after all, but what if the Canucks lost? There was an estimated 120,000 people at the expanded outdoor viewing area at Georgia and Hamilton (to put things into perspective, this crowd is roughly as large as that of Hyde Park the day of the royal wedding) and even more people clustered in bars all over Vancouver. I was at a Brian Wilson concert in Kitchener, Ontario, and even there people were asking each other about the game during intermission. Despite all the anticipation and cheering, the Canucks did lose, and then pandemonium ensued. The scenes that you and I saw on TV, in some ways even worse than recent riot scenes from the Middle East, unraveled themselves too fast to be stopped on the spot by police.

Some sources report that the riot brought about $1 million worth of property damage and $1 billion worth of negative publicity to the city. To many, it would have reversed the positive impression made of Vancouver and Canada through last year's Winter Olympics. I must also confess, I had never felt so embarrassed to be associated with Vancouver; horrible timing too, just as I was finally starting to warm up to the city after about 5 years of "living" here. ("living" = visiting three times a year between terms)

Alas, not all hope is lost. Vancouver stood up the very next day and proved itself to be the wonderful city it was previously known for, and beyond. People organized themselves and went out to the shattered streets to help clean up, offered random acts of kindness (free hugs, anyone?), and expressed themselves on wooden panels placed temporarily in lieu of windows. This was a city that wanted to remember the happy times, a city that wanted to heal, a city that wanted to make good out of bad. A truly beautiful city.

No riots. Respect our city.

Here is the happy ending that Vancouver deserves at the end of its two-month journey towards the Stanley Cup, in the form of a full text of a poem that was pasted to the "Great Wall of Vancouver":

Message from a Proud City - Author unknown

We are strong enough to sweep up

the broken glass, the ashes and trash

you left behind. We are brave enough

to come into the light and show the world

who we are. We have faith enough

that our city will rise from this darkness

better, stronger, and even more beautiful

than before. We are wise enough to know

you have done nothing. We are human

enough to applaud the brave ones

who defied you, to heal every wound

that you inflicted, and to love ourselves.

And we are patient. We are diligent.

We are eager to bring you to the light

and show you the strength of our justice.

We will learn, and we will grow

and we will never surrender to the fear

that seems to plague you. We are VANCOUVER.