Canada's gold medals might make the rest of the world prone to criticism, but all of the bluster emerging internationally should be ignored entirely.

Typing the search term “Vancouver” into Google these days produces a flood of negative stories which are snowballing far more effectively than the efforts to maintain the white stuff atop a warm and damp Cypress Mountain.

I find it fascinating how the British press are writing a post-mortem on the Games within 2-3 days of the opening.  But then again, in typical Limey tabloid fashion, printing first, and thinking and apologizing later, is once again being employed in skewered coverage designed to set the bar as low as possible for the London 2012 games.

To connect the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili to Canada’s “lust for glory” or to blame the difficulties caused by usually warm temperatures is absolutely ridiculous.

And accordingly, most reading such tripe will be able see through these arguments as a tower of cards, shattered with the most innocuous gust of wind – meaning any voice of reason.

Don’t get me wrong…I have always been weary of VANOC’s operations, their modus operandi, and quite frankly, their decision making in running these Games.  As an example, when the Mayor of Vancouver, one of the biggest Olympic boosters out there, starts to publicly campaign for the organization to free the flame, you know that the powers that be have been couped up for far to long in their Burnaby headquarters.

But our pride, which is showing through like no other time in our history, should not be halted for all the criticism in the world.

We invested to own the podium.  We gave our athletes a proper program for funding excellence, and this Olympics will be a test of how the investment has paid out.

We are hungry to be the number one country on the podium.  In the crowd yesterday following our first men’s hockey victory, you could see a genuine patriotism that I have rarely witnessed here on the West Coast.

I have enjoyed Canada Day in Ottawa, and tested the resolve of Atlantic Canadians to flex their Canadian pride, but having lived in this city for my entire life, I have never seen such an outpouring of pure emotion.

And that my friends is what you call an evolution.  An evolution of a country that not only wants to excel in sports, but one that is proud to host the world and show how lucky we are to live here.

So let the international naysayers bitch and moan about how Canadians have lost their modesty, or how our aggressive approach to pulling down the most medals in these Games is “unCanadian.”

I say that’s a load of crap from commentators that are looking to in someway boost their own lagging fortunes or buffer their upcoming hosting duties as is the case with the Brits.

We are a proud nation that is finally growing up enough to show it, unabashedly and with vigour to spare.

I love to see it, and so should every other Canadian who has ever longed for national unity that doesn’t revolve around the succession of la belle province or provincial/federal wars.

Go Canada Go!!!