Vancouver 2010 Closing Ceremony: Catherine O’Hara among Star-Studded Cast

March 1, 2010 By 15 Comments

As you all know, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics came to an end yesterday, with the Closing Ceremony taking place last night. And among the dancing lumberjacks and giant inflatable beavers, were a star-studded cast of Canadians to help close the Olympics.

And according to a recent report at nydailynews.com, actors Michael J. Fox and William Shatner and actress/comedienne Catherine O’Hara, were the stars that presented the “I Am Canadian” portion of yesterday’s closing ceremonies.

Vancouver 2010 Closing Ceremony: Catherine O’Hara among Star-Studded Cast

There were also some great performances by local musicians such as Avril Lavigne, Alanis Morissette, Neil Young and of course, Michael Buble. The first of the “I Am Canadian” stars to take to the stage was the “Star Trek” and “T.J. Hooker” star William Shatner.

William’s first words were “I’m Bill and I’m proud to be Canadian.” He then proceeded to call Canada “the final frontier,” and made a joke how Canadians are people who know how to make love in a canoe. Next up in that segment was Catherine O’Hara.

She came on shouting, as two curlers swept her down a sheet of ice. “We’re sorry you thought Canada was one big frozen tundra,” she said in a joking way. She then went on to make a series of unfunny jokes about Canadians’ penchant for apologizing.

But it appeared to be actor Michael J. Fox who got the biggest standing ovation of the closing ceremony. The star of the “Back to the Future” movies – who suffers from Parkinson’s disease – said that he still supports the Canadian hockey team, despite living in the US.

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  • JB Bains

    Catherine O'Hara – just a low life performance.

  • Steve

    That was one of the worst organized and poorly executed presentations I've ever seen. Not very funny, not endearing to canada, and really a waste of time. Should have ended with Neil Young and Jacque Rogge closing the ceremony.
    Sorry Canada, I still like you, but that was pitiful.

  • June

    Agreed. I thought it was just tacky. Otherwise it was a somewhat funny and entertaining evening. For the most part we just made fun of the musical 'stars' while watching it though. Dear Canada, we could have done a LOT better.

  • Connie

    I thought Catherine O'hara's comments on the Olympics were totally inappropriate…especially the "peeing" in the snow comments. And it appears it was approved by the committee since there were photo's to go along with it. The Olympic Closing Ceremony was no place for that….it was to honor the particpants…. way below classy!!…

  • Mary Mack

    Shatner, O'Hara, like them but really a couple of 'has beens' for this gig, not funny and what's even more hilarious: they haven't lived in Canada for years and years. At least Fox was honest about it. Did they get paid for this?????? And I never heard anyone refer to McGill University and University of McGill. Anyway, apart from that fiasco, I loved every minute of the games. Look forward to the next one in Russia.

  • Lumberjack

    it was a great closing cerimony I am asuming the guy who wrote the coment above is just jelous he wasn't there!

  • Soctane

    The show was directed by two Australians. So I guess Canada will some day return the favor and have Crocodile Dundee throwing inflatable shrimp on a giant fake barbie as Kylie Minogue vogues.

  • Mark

    I agree. Whoever wrote the "jokes" is a complete idiot.

  • Cindy

    LOL! we can only hope! :^)

  • Emslie

    I was there……….and while I love Catherine O'Hara, she wasn't really getting that much of a good response from the audience during her speech. It was a very exciting experience to be in the audience though!

  • Linda

    I was totally embarressed by this woman….what a shame it was aired ! Sorry to all guests !

  • A Canadian

    Typical british poo-pooing of anything successful from their former colonies. Get over it brits, it was great, which only goes to show the brits and others have no sense of humour except through making other people look stupid – ie Monty Python, etc. I guess you hadn't noticed, but the world has now passed you by UK and has moved on. If you didn't get the jokes, too bad, The Americans and Germans did, and of course they won medals, which dare I say the brits scored what, let me remember, oh yes, ONE! Is this just typical british sour grapes at not doing anything constructive on the world stage since WWII?

  • fred

    Are you guys by any chance american?

  • ScottMe

    Pitiful. Just pitiful. Not the best choice for an international audience. I feel embarrassed for them. I never realized Canada was so bland.

  • Denise

    I am a proud Canadian, and my husband and I were absolutely horrified by Katherine O'Hara's tasteless jokes (he and I both are completely warped and have great senses of humour, but consider the target audience!!!). Whoever wrote them didn't think it through very well, and whoever approved them should have their position reviewed. I was mortified and embarrassed to have been made to look so stupid on the world stage. Also, the lip syncing by the two girls at the beginning? UGH!! That said, I thought the bands likely appealed to many, but WOW, I was expecting something fantastic like in the opening ceremony, and only got a little of that. the coloured boards with the eyeholes was a fiasco as well. QA testing, people!!! Back to O'Hara, shortly after seeing the closing ceremony, I saw the previous Friday's episode of the Colbert Report, and he said "Sorry Canada" while showing a picture of the USA hockey team celebrating in front of the Canadian net… So maybe that's where that joke came from?? either way, it, along with most of her monologue, was inappropriate. All that said, how does a floppy ceremony quantify the blandness of an entire Country? It doesn't! Canada rocks, the ceremony… not so much! << hangs head in shame over embarrassing ceremony >>