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Community Leaders Invited to Retrieve Olympic Flame

October 2, 2009

VANCOUVER – Port Alberni Mayor Ken McRae, Mayor Carol Kulesha of the Village of Queen Charlotte, and Lake Cowichan Mayor Ross Forrest have been invited to participate in the official retrieval of the Olympic Flame from Greece. The three community leaders were invited after their names were drawn from a pool of all B.C. Mayors and Regional District Chairs by Premier Gordon Campbell at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities Convention.

“I want to congratulate Mayor McRae, Mayor Kulesha and Mayor Forrest for being part of the official team who will soon begin a historic journey to bring the Olympic Flame to British Columbia,” said Premier Campbell. “The Olympic spirit is something that is shared in every community across our province as we prepare to welcome the world in just 133 days.”

The flame will be retrieved from Athens Greece on Oct. 29, following the ceremonial lighting in Olympia on Oct. 22 and a short relay around Greece. A team from Canada will be heading over to Greece to pick up the flame and bring it back to Victoria for a celebration to start the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay on Oct. 30.

“Congratulations to these three community leaders who will now be ambassadors for all B.C. communities, and sharing our common goal of ensuring as many communities as possible have a chance to experience the flame,” said John Furlong, chief executive officer of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC). “This invitation to these three community leaders to join the team going to Greece is our way to include all of B.C. in the excitement and to show our pride and say thank you to B.C. communities for their support.”

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay, presented by Coca-Cola, RBC and supported by the Government of Canada, will begin its 45,000-kilometre, 106-day journey on Oct. 30, 2009 in Victoria. The flame will spend a total of 27 days in B.C., carried by 3,500 torchbearers. It will run through 268 of B.C.’s communities and places of interest, 50 of which have been designated as celebration communities.

Premier Campbell also announced that the plaza outside of the Vancouver Convention Centre will be named after Jack Poole. Poole was the chair of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Bid Committee and he has been chair of the VANOC board since 2003.

“The great plaza at the foot of the Convention Centre will be a gathering place for Olympic visitors and citizens alike and will be called Jack Poole Plaza in honour of his great contribution to his city, his province, his country and the Olympic spirit,” said Premier Campbell.

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Media contact:

Bridgitte Anderson

Press Secretary

Office of the Premier

604 307-7177

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