The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) unveiled today the route for the Canada-wide 45,000-kilometre Olympic Torch Relay. It would really be a dream come true for me to be one of the torchbearers (either during the journey in Greece or in Canada).

Following the ceremonial lighting of the Olympic Flame in Olympia, Greece, the torch’s Canadian journey will begin on October 30, 2009 in Victoria, British Columbia and will conclude on February 12, 2010 with the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron in Vancouver. After 106 days the flame will have touched more than 1,000 communities and places of interest, travelling as far west as Old Crow, Yukon; as far east as Cape Spear, Newfoundland and Labrador; as far south as Point Pelee, Ontario; and up to Canada’s northernmost inhabited point - Alert, Nunavut.

The Olympic Torch Relay will visit 187 celebration communities, 115 Aboriginal communities, 20 key places of interest, 14 Canadian Forces Bases and stations, and 690 other route communities. Here are a few prominent sights along the route:

Alberta
Hoodoos
Banff National Park
Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump

British Columbia
Kootenay Pass
Craigellachie (site of The Last Spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway)

Manitoba
The Forks, Winnipeg
Canadian Forces Base, Shilo

New Brunswick
Fundy National Park
Carleton Martello Tower National Historic Site

Newfoundland and Labrador
Cape Spear (easternmost point in North America and the relay)
L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site

Northwest Territories
Igloo Church in Inuvik

Nova Scotia
Lunenburg, home of the Bluenose
Annapolis Royal

Nunavut
Resolute
Alert (northernmost point of the relay)

Ontario
Parliament hill
Niagara Falls
Point Pelee (southernmost point of the relay)

Prince Edward Island
Anne of Green Gables House National Historic Site
Confederation Bridge

Quebec
Old Quebec City
Olympic Stadium, Montreal

Saskatchewan
Wanuskawin Heritage Park

Yukon
Old Crow (westernmost point of the relay)

Nearly 200 communities across Canada will have the distinct opportunity to gather and participate in the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay community celebrations. Designated celebration towns will open up their events so that friends, relatives and neighbours from nearby communities can share in the fun.

Related Links:

Vancouver 2010 - Official Web site

Torch Relay coverage by Community-online.com (under development)