I am not normally a big fan of opening ceremonies at events like the Olympics as I believe they have become too pompous and bear little relation to what the events are supposed to be about.

But I would never miss another one if someone could guarantee to me that they will be as brilliantly entertaining as last night's Opening Ceremony for the Paralympics in Vancouver.

BC Place Stadium was transformed into a sea of flashing orange lights. Then a lone trumpeter. From there, the scene exploded. Living up to its theme of "one inspires many," the ceremony inspired many.

From the moment the ceremony started at 6pm., it had a human, warm touch. It was alternately frenzied, quirky, playful and deeply moving.

Governor General Michaelle Jean, the Queen's representative in Canada, set the tone as she walked on stage holding hands with two children on either side. Then the stage became a sea of dancing children in the form of a maple leaf.

During the entry of the 44 nations who are competing at these Games, athletes tugged on heart strings as they rolled in on wheelchairs, tugging on wheels up a fairly steep ramp. Many have had much higher and steeper hills to climb. As they came in some limped, others bore crutches. Some waved just one arm; others with visual impairments were led in by guides. Everyone smiled.

Canada has a deep affinity with its Paralympic athletes like Chantal Petitclerc, a 14-time Paralympic gold medallist who is among the country's best-known sportsmen or women, and Rick Hansen, a three-time Paralympic champion but who is better known for his Man in Motion tour.

That made it all the more shocking that most of Canada was denied the opportunity to share in the opportunity of seeing the central roles played by Petitclerc and Hansen in last night's Opening Ceremony by the crazy decision of CTV not to broadcast the event live nationwide. It was only decided to televise the event live in British Columbia on the morning of the event.

I understand that the Paralympics will never get the same coverage as the Olympics - and I don't think anyone involved in the Movement, including Sir Philip Craven, the President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), who was so critical of CTV's decision not to show the event coast-to-cast would ever expect it. But it was a grave insult to everyone involved in these Games that at least the Opening Ceremony was not afforded the same respect.



But, ironically, the man who was at the centre of the Ceremony was someone who never ever competed in the Paralympics but, in Canada at least, is linked closely to what it stands for.

Terry Fox was brought up close to Vancouver. In 1980, three years after losing a leg to osteosarcoma, he attempted to run across Canada in the Marathon of Hope to raise awareness of the disease. Fox hoped to raise one dollar for each of Canada's 24 million people, a goal he met despite being forced to end his run after 143 days and 5,300 kilometers when his cancer spread to his lungs. Fox died nine months after being forced to end his marathon.

A series of runs named in his honour and held around the world continues to raise money for cancer research.

There had been some criticism that, although Fox's mother Betty had been included the group of famous Canadians who carried the Olympic flag into BC Place during the Opening Ceremony of last month's Games, that he had been largely overlooked by organisers.
If that really was the case, then Vancouver 2010 tried very hard to rectify that omission here,

Betty and Rolly (pictured), Fox's father, were given the honour of slowly carrying the Paralympic flame into BC Place before it was passed among a ring of torch-bearers before Zach Beaumont, a 15-year-old athlete finally lit the cauldron to signal the Games were officially open.

I hope that Fox's parents feel that Terry was properly honoured. 

In a segment that tugged at the heart-strings - and certainly brought a tear to my eye - Fox was projected running on giant screens around BC Place. Or "Terry finally coming home," as one Canadian commentator explained to me. They then showed a television interview from all those years ago. "I keep hearing ‘Terry Fox' a lot," Terry said on the screen, from somewhere in Canada, still so young and vibrant and real.

"And I'm not doing the run to become rich; I'm not doing the run to become famous myself. I think that's a problem with our world today ... Because people are getting really selfish. A lot of people think they need a lot of money, they've got to be rich in order to be happy, but at the end of the run, I'm not going to keep a cent of it for myself, and I don't want a cent.

"To me, being famous myself is not the idea of the run, and it wasn't the idea from the very beginning ... I'm just one member of the Marathon of Hope. I'm no different from anybody else. I'm no better, I'm no lower. I'm equal, with all of you."

It summed up what the Paralympics are all about. Shame that CTV didn't listen.

Duncan Mackay is the editor of insideworldparasport, as well as insidethegames and insideworldfootball. He was formerly the athletics correspondent of The Guardian and The Observer. He was voted the British Sports Journalist of the Year in 2004 and last week won the British Sports Internet Writer of the Year for 2009. He will be writing a regular blog during the Paralympics

Pictures by Helen Grace Bennet