Getting’ the show on the road

By Doc Pow

For me today was very special. It was the first time that I got to see the Olympic torch up close and personal. As we were driving out from Edmonton to Lloydminster to bring you this coverage, it was like I was heading to a concert that I have been awaiting for a long while.

It was 14 years ago, while living in Vancouver, that I got a look at what was to be the country’s collective future. At the time, a group that included Arthur Griffiths, one-time owner of the Vancouver Canucks, was working to secure for Canada and British Columbia the world’s largest winter sporting event. I was working for the Greater Vancouver Open, a PGA stop and this Olympic bid office shared with ours. Everyday I’d pop my head in there to investigate thinking all along how incredible it would be to welcome the world.

After years of effort, that dream came true and now the Olympic Torch is making its way across the country, and along the way, igniting the hearts and minds of millions. The numbers of this three and a half month tour are staggering. The relay touches 1,038 communities in 106 days including 187 community celebrations with 12,000 torch bearers covering over 45,000 kilometers.

When the torch was here in Alberta at the end of November, it made its way by plane but this is certainly not the only mode of transport now. The torch will be conveyed by horse drawn carriages, sled dogs and even Alberta’s own Charlie Locke, owner of Lake Louise, is offering up a unique mode of transport – snowmobile on Jan. 21.

Here in Alberta, the torch will be carried by 1,000 torch bearers and will cover over 3,400 kms throughout the province before it is handed off to the British Columbia residents for the final push to Whistler.

Over the next 10 days, the torch will stop in dozens of communities throughout the province, including our capital city, Edmonton. It will head down to Drumheller to hang with the dinosaurs, into the UNESCO World Heritage site of Head-Smashed in Buffalo Jump and back to Alberta’s Olympic roots at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. Smaller centres such as Airdrie, Vegreville and High River will also see the flame carried through the hometown streets, and of course, it will head into the Canadian Rockies of Canmore, Banff and Lake Louise.


Watch for more updates as we bring them to you daily from the road.

Brothers in arms

By Rick MacDonnell

If there’s one thing that can be said about the Olympics, it’s that it brings all kinds of people together. Lloydminster’s Bud Miller Park was brimming with people from all walks of life, including twins Harold and Harvey Hawer, lifetime residents of Lloydminster, who have been waiting 77 years to see the Olympic Torch with their own eyes."

“It’s great to see all these kids out having so much fun with [the festivities], but when you’ve been waiting to see the torch as long as we have, it’s an entirely different experience,” said Harvey. “When you get to be a little older and a little wiser, you realize that this moment means so much more than the symbol of some games.”

“It’s about community, and spirit, and ... and coming together,” added Harold.

Content to stand far to the side of Bud Miller Park, the Hawer brothers were all business when it came to waiting for the torch to arrive. Arms clasped behind their backs – mirror images of one another – both Harold and Harvey kept their eyes fixed on the point where Merv Mann, a local hockey player and coach, would later enter the park, torch ablaze.

Such controlled intensity would be envied by the Olympians themselves, to be sure.

No strangers to sport, Harold and Harvey still take part in a curling league twice a week, and together they’ve participated in the Canadian Senior Games three times in lawn bowling.

“There’s a 55 to 70 group, and there’s a 70+ group. If you’re over 70, you can still play in the 55 to 70 group, if you want. Each time we’ve gone, we’ve competed in separate divisions,” said Harvey. “We don’t ever want to compete against one another.”

“He just doesn’t want me to beat him,” laughed Harold.

Later in the evening, as the torch finally entered Bud Miller Park and parted the sea of passionate supporters, I glanced across the crowd and saw Harold and Harvey, still in that same spot, still with their arms clasped behind their backs.

No shouts, no screams, no claps. Just a turn, a look, and a nod.

Then a smile.