All Olympic torch bearers should have been from the lake

It was a lot of fun celebrating the Olympic torch going through town on Saturday, with the weather as perfect as you can expect for late October.

There was one major disappointment, though. Most of the torch bearers weren’t from around here. People who were lined up along the route to cheer got a surprise when they didn’t recognize the torch bearers.

By the time rumours spread that Dawn Coe-Jones would be a torch bearer at the marina, it was too late for most people to get there to cheer her on because no general traffic was allowed along the route.

That’s a shame. We are told that the torch relay is for the public, a chance for them to be touched in some way by the Olympics. Not telling us who is doing the relay is a strange way to instill that enthusiasm. People still cheered, out of respect to those fine people who were carrying the torch, but in many cases it was muted.

Torch bearer Phil Haseldine, who moved here a couple of years ago, said carrying the flame was everything he expected and more. Seeing how proud he was to carry the torch in the town where he lives suggests that the best way to stir Olympic excitement would have been to have lake residents carrying the torch through Lake Cowichan — and let us know before hand who they are.

Haseldine was gracious and patient enough to hang around lower Centennial Hall into the early evening so excited residents could get their photo with the torch. He was more than happy to talk with people as well.

Kudos to him for his Olympic torch spirit.

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