Before dawn in most of Canada, in the heat of midday at Olympia, Gary Lunn sounded very much like a man transported by what he had just witnessed.

It was certainly good theatre. On the site of the ancient Games, the priestesses of the Temple of Hera (or, more accurately, actresses playing priestesses) were clad in white, prayers were offered to Apollo and to Zeus, sunlight was captured to light the Olympic Flame, which will now be carried along the most circuitous 45,000-kilometre route imaginable to the opening of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games in February.

The first Greek runner, despite temperatures pushing 35 degrees, wore a tuque and mittens, a nod to the 2010 host, as they all will during the next week while the torch tours Greece before being flown to Victoria to begin its long journey up, down and across Canada.

Beyond the stagecraft, beyond the costume drama, there was the realization that after all of the preparation, all of the build-up, the controversies, the questions and the doubts, the big show is nearly upon us.

Until now, it had seemed distant and theoretical. As of now, it starts to become real.

"Our time is here," Mr. Lunn, the federal Minister of State for Sport, bubbled over the phone. "Our time has begun. When that torch exploded into flame, it was like ‘Wow, this is it.' "

For anyone who has been paying attention, a disclaimer is necessary at this point: The modern Olympics have more to do with class-driven 19th-century ideals of sport, amateurism and the whole person than those of ancient Greece.

And, as we have come to know them, they have more to do with selling soda pop, cellphones and credit cards than either of the above; the International Olympic Committee, judging by the recent revelations about the under-the-table connection between Jacques Rogge's ascension to the organization's presidency and Beijing's successful bid for the 2008 Summer Games, remains the same old corrupt, unaccountable, self-aggrandizing insiders club; whether staging ever-more elaborate and expensive Games is a wise use of public resources is, and ought to be, a very live debating point; and the torch relay wasn't the brainchild of Greek priestesses, but of the Nazi propaganda machine in 1936.

Still, beyond any cynicism, justified or otherwise, there is something else to consider as the final countdown begins to the opening ceremonies of Vancouver/Whistler 2010.

This, for Canadians, will be a moment - and a rare one - when the whole question of who we are and how we feel about it will be front and centre. The torch-running and flag-waving and anthem-playing and medal-winning and heart-on-sleeve patriotism, along with all of the insecurities that go with playing host, will be impossible to ignore even for those who are conscientious objectors when it comes to all things Olympic.

And afterwards, something will have been revealed about us, possibly in ways that will only be fully understood down the road.

In past Olympics, it was small things.

After Montreal in 1976, though those Games were fun while they lasted, there was the enduring shame of all that waste, all of that mismanagement, a feeling that returns every time you see the Olympic Stadium as it ages not-at-all-gracefully. After Calgary in 1988, there was the quiet satisfaction of a job well done, mixed with dashed expectations, with the disappointment of the still-absent gold medal.

This time, the Games will be bigger, they will be broadcast and analyzed in minute detail as never before, they will be unavoidable even before the flame first flickers in the cauldron at B.C. Place Stadium, and they will be touted as evidence of a different Canada, a more confident Canada, unapologetic, swaggering even, ready to kick butt and take names.

If that sticks, even a little bit, if that's really who and where we are, it will seem worlds away from the modest, just-happy-to-be-there place that played host a little more than 20 years ago.

Sometimes, glimpses of the elusive national identity are prompted by profound happenings, like battles fought in faraway lands or a referendum that might cut a country in half, and sometimes they are inspired by a plain old hockey game, or by an uber-commercial sports dog-and-pony show, in which the athletes themselves offer some measure of redemption.

"This is going to be a remarkable year for Canada on the world stage," Mr. Lunn said Thursday, still in a state of bliss.

This is going to be a remarkable year for Canada in Canada, at home, looking into the mirror and seeing what we see.