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TORONTO 鈥� Two-time NBAMVPSteve Nash, of Victoria, lit the flame Friday night to open the 17th Pan Am Games. Nash ran outside the Rogers Centre in Toronto, where the opening ceremonies were taking place, and lit the flame at the foot of the CNTower.
Meanwhile, Torontonians seemed to be generally indifferent to what they see as a second-tier event.
More than 50 Island athletes are competing for the host nation. Friday鈥檚 ceremonies were held in a stadium with the official address of 1 Blue Jays Way.
And that may be a sign of just what ails these Games. Toronto is a city notoriously indifferent to anything that isn鈥檛 considered big league, including the Canadian Football League. The junior Ontario Hockey League works in Kitchener, London and Windsor, but not as well in the Toronto area. Unless it鈥檚 stamped Maple Leafs, Blue Jays or Raptors, it just doesn鈥檛 play here.
Is Toronto simply too big to care about the Pan Am Games? Only about half the tickets have been sold. The vibe you feel on the streets here is that these aren鈥檛 the Summer Olympics, which Toronto has twice bid for, and what is an Olympic-class city doing hosting a minor-league event?
Games such the Pan Am, Commonwealth and Francophone don鈥檛 work as well in nation-leading cities such as Toronto, London or Paris as they do in Victoria, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Manchester or Glasgow. For the latter cities, these were their Olympics and they took pride in hosting them.
Canadian Olympic Committee officials fended off questions about Toronto鈥檚 perceived attitude during a pre-opening ceremonies news conference Friday. 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 felt any indifference,鈥� countered Canadian team chef de mission and former cyclist Curt Harnett.
Rugby player Magali Harvey, here with the Langford-based gold-medal favoured Canadian women鈥檚 sevens squad, said she is just happy to be playing on home soil in a Games.
鈥淚t鈥檚 great to compete in front of a home crowd . . . it鈥檚 my first opportunity for my parents to see me on the field and not just on a computer or TV,鈥� she said.
Games cyclist Evan Carey, from Victoria, concurred. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty special to be at a home Games,鈥� said the Oak Bay High graduate, who is a product of the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games velodrome at Juan de Fuca. 鈥淚n Milton, where the Pan Am Games Velodrome is located, the people have been very supportive and are getting more and more into the Games. If you鈥檙e wearing your Canadian team kit around town, people will stop you and wish you luck.鈥�
Craig Taylor, the Canadian triathlon coach at these Games, learned his craft during his years in Victoria as an intern at the national training centre. But he鈥檚 from Toronto and came to the defence of his city.
鈥淭oronto is a big-league town, which means it鈥檚 going to put on the best Pan Am Games ever,鈥� he said.
The 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games budget of $160 million seems positively quaint compared with the Toronto 2015 Games budget of $2.5 billion.
Part of that money was on display Friday in the Cirque du Soleil-themed opening ceremonies. Those guys don鈥檛 come cheap.
