Olympic flame arrives in Nova Scotia

NORTH SYDNEY, N.S. – The Olympic flame arrived in Cape Breton early Monday after an overnight journey from Newfoundland aboard the Marine Atlantic ferry MV Caribou.

Organizers in North Sydney wanted the flame to be carried by a torchbearer straight off the vessel, but port security officials said that wasn’t possible for safety reasons, according to local Harbour Master Mary MacIntyre.

So MacIntyre, and a handful of local spectators, gathered outside the ferry terminal gates as the flame was driven onshore inside an official Torch Relay SUV, for the lighting of one of the many Olympic torches that will make their way through Cape Breton and mainland Nova Scotia over the next five days.

Kim Simon was the first to carry the flame on Cape Breton soil – her white-and-green track suit marked with the numbers 001 – and many of those who watched her were left scratching their heads.

Local residents expected a Cape Bretoner would be chosen for the first leg of the relay. Simon, however, had arrived the previous day from Halifax, where she manages a group of retail stores at Halifax International Airport.

Coca-Cola – one of the major sponsors of the torch relay, and a supplier of the airport stores – had parachuted her into the No. 1 spot on the Nova Scotia portion.

"It’s bizarre she was chosen for this," said MacIntyre, watching Simon begin her walk, accompanied by a bagpiper.

"Still, I’m very excited that our port is the first stop along the route in Nova Scotia," said MacIntyre. "I was a university student in Calgary during the 1988 Winter Olympics, and I wouldn’t have missed seeing this celebration for anything."

Then, as now, corporations play a major role in the Olympics.

Coca-Cola has a large presence in the official, 20-car convoy that is snaking its way across the country with the relay, including a huge red parade vehicle emblazoned with the words "Open Happiness," as well as dozens of male and female cheerleaders walking beside the convoy in bright, red Coke track suits.

Organizers say almost a third of all torchbearers across the country were specially selected by either the Vancouver Olympic committee or the games’ sponsors, and include hundreds of corporate friends, and media members as well.

The remaining two-thirds are local citizens who applied to carry the torch in their communities.

Eddie MacDonald is one of them.

The retired Cape Bretoner was near death two years ago, before a double lung transplant changed his life. On Monday, MacDonald will walk the flame 300 meters through a section of his hometown.

"This is probably one of the greatest honours of my life," he said in a local radio interview shortly before his turn with the torch. "I hope my presence here will somehow or other offer hope and encouragement to people who are fighting lung disease and other end-stage diseases."

After leaving Sydney on Monday, the torch travels all day through Cape Breton, stopping in Mabou, N.S. – the home of the Rankin Family – before arriving at the Canso Causeway at nightfall.

The torch began its journey across Canada on Oct. 30 in Victoria.

The relay, a little more than 100 days in length, will see the torch carried into 1,000 communities, travelling 45,000 kilometres, before it reaches its final destination, the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Feb. 12, 2010.