How Olympic performance helps brand Canada

Perhaps I should start this discussion with the question: is Canada “Cool”? And I would answer with “we’re starting to be.” There are a lot of people who would have a knee jerk reaction of “of course we are.” But in reality, we are not.

Yes Canadians have enjoyed an enviable position when travelling internationally, a level of acceptance that few others receive. But that was really living off the laurels of ancestors who fought in the 1st and 2nd world wars. Canada wasn’t cool – it was friendly, polite and dare I say – boring. Tourism numbers reflected it. Canada may have been a “safe” destination, but was certainly not on the top of anyone’s bucket list. Even immigrants came to Canada as a second or third choice behind countries like the USA or Australia. And remember, immigration is the backbone of all our hopes for the future.

International organizations have waffled on stats of Canadian coolness. A decade ago, The Economist, the weekly international affairs and news publication declared Canada "cool." However they reversed that laudatory declaration about 5 months ago.

A poll from social-networking site Badoo in 2011 had some bad news for Canadians: the results say the world ranks us among the least-cool nationalities. The poll asked 30,000 people in 15 countries to name the coolest nationality. Sadly Canada ranked among the least-cool nationalities, ranking fourth on that list behind the Belgians, Poles and Turks.

Not all news is bad, Canada is gaining on the Cool stage

Other statistics, however, are painting a different, more cohesive picture. In fact, it’s a pretty amazing time to be a Canadian. We are the envy of dozens of nations around the world. We've dodged the economic crisis that's rattled most of the world. We’re nice. We’re producing some amazing internationally recognized talent (of course they had to leave Canada to gain that fame). But most importantly, we have a country that is a great place to live.

Better Cities
Canadian cities continually rank as some of the top most livable cities in the world. In the most recent Mercer quality of living survey Canadian cities dominate North America’s top-five list. Ranking fifth globally, Vancouver tops the regional list, followed by Ottawa (14), Toronto (15) and Montreal (23).

Best Place To Do Business?
According to Forbes, Canada is the best country in the world to do business. We have a lower corporate tax rate, excellent infrastructure and a well-educated populace. Truthfully, if we tackled the issue of mass transit, we would do even better.

Social Mobility
According to the Huffington Post, Canada has greater social mobility. If you are born into the poorest 10 per cent, your odds of making it to the richest 10 per cent are considerably better in Canada than in the U.S. In other words, it's easier to realize the American Dream in Canada than it is in the U.S.

And this is having an impact what it means to be Canadian. We have stolen the limelight, projecting confidence that's making headlines globally. Which brings us back to our original question, does winning at the Olympics impact brand Canada and the answer has to be a resounding YES!

Fit for Life

This is the year of the fitness craze. And no, it’s not the 1980s and Groundhog Day. But this is the year where I’m hearing more and more people talking about making fitness and nutrition a much bigger part of their lives. Fueled by the realization that we are all getting older and possibly more importantly, that we are going to live longer, people are filing into gyms and nutritionists’ offices at unprecedented rates.

Nothing new you say, it’s the same every New Year. True, but this year feels different. Even Forbes commented on the increasing value of the VMS (Vitamin, Mineral and Supplements) segment “Produced about $32 billion in revenue for just nutritional supplements alone in 2012, the segment is projected to double that by topping $60 billion in 2021 according to the Nutritional Business Journal.

According to Partnership Capital Growth partner Brian Smith, a leading industry expert since 2000, the reason for the growth is it has gone mainstream. “Ten years ago, it was just the muscleheads and the weekend warriors. Now, it’s the full spectrum with men and especially women,” he said.

Former NFL player Brad Pyatt, founder of MusclePharm, “people see the need to stay healthy with the uncertainty of Medicaid and Medicare and so they were seeking alternative ways to do it.”

All this may be true, and maybe I’m feeling my age, but this is the year I am committed to living a full and active life with increased focus on fitness and especially nutrition. I’ve been working towards this point for a while. Last year I decided to put myself on an intensive fitness regime of working with a personal trainer three days a week. I know, it’s not cheap, but it’s an investment in myself. After a couple of months, my husband decided to join us. Now the two of us meet with Alexandra Bicanic at a local gym called Fitness Connection at least twice a week and try to supplement our training time with self directed workouts at least two more days a week. We’ve had our body fat measured (horrible) and our fitness and balance capabilities calculated.

I found my goals were changing from my younger days. Instead of watching the scale or measuring the width of my waste, I was now noting increased energy, muscle definition and strength. And my knees, not the sexiest part of the body (although I had often teased that if I hadn’t had a kneecap in my younger pre-teen days, I wouldn’t have had a figure) where a focus point. I had try to avoid straining them for years knowing that one was bad and the other worse. Almost twenty years ago I had been diagnosed during my cycling days with chondromalacia, often called Runner's Knee. Chondromalacia occurs because of irritation of the cartilage on the undersurface of the kneecap. The only advice given to me at the time was to not over-use the knees. Not advice I could take as I was on day four of a fourteen-day bike event. Now Alex was teaching me to make my glutes do the work to support my knees. She was working on balance of function and structure. A fluke of genetics and thanks to cycling and the afore-mentioned step classes, I had over-developed my quads and now needed to spend time working on the glutes. In balance they protect my knees. I’m able to run up stairs, twist and turn. It’s a wonderful thing.

After almost a year of working with Alex I am proud to say I was able to help my mother clean out her house (can I say pack rat?) and move into a retirement home without the need of chiropractic or RMT intervention. Alex’s focus on full-body movement or “functional training” is different from past experiences at a gym in the days of high-intensity step workouts. Those were the days of a set circuit of machines, pumping my arms and legs in a series of reps that required little thought or focus. Now we’re moving the whole body and largely using my own body weight – focus is everything.

I remember during the 1980s, Rachel Welch saying that if a sixteen year old does not have a good body, nature is not kind, but if a sixty year old does not have a good body, it’s laziness. That might be a bit harsh, but has elements of truth. I know that if I want to stay fit, I need to remain active every day of my life. The only way I can expect to stay in great condition is to work at it. Is it worth it? Sometimes it would be a lot easier to stay on the couch but I know if I want to face the next phase of my life with energy and good health, I have to stay with the plan.

Quote from Forbes