Torch relay to Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games now underway
Published June 7, 2022 at 11:10 am
It’s a long way to Niagara Region from Ottawa. It’s even longer if you backtrack, head east and come from Montreal, instead.
But that the route that the Roly McLenahan Torch, which was officially lit yesterday (June 6) will take to get to this region for the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games, scheduled to take place this summer from August 6 to 21.
So while the Games themselves will only take two weeks, it’s a two-month journey for the torch to make it to the Niagara Region and for the first time ever, the torch run will be partially done on a ship, rather than the traditional road route.
Lit at the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, two-time 100M Canadian Champion and 2009 Canada Games gold medallist Sam Effah started it off before handing it over to 17-year-old Tristan Caldwell and 15-year-old Tristan Thompson, both of Ontario, who will play in the first lacrosse competition at a Canada Games in 37 years.
The torch will now make its way to Montreal on the Trans Canada Trail by bicycle, scheduled to finish Day one at Gatineau Park in Chelsea, Quebec.
In the coming days, the torch relay will continue along the Trans Canada Trail in parts of Quebec with stops in Wakefield, Messines, Mont-Laurier, Mont-Tremblant, Mont-Blanc, Saint-Jerome and Terrebonne before landing in Montreal on June 15.
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Then, in partnership with Canada Steamship Lines, the presenting sponsor of Niagara 2022’s Torch Relay Program, the Torch will embark on a CSL vessel in Montreal and travel by water for the first time in Canada Games history — travelling along the St. Lawrence Seaway to Niagara, where starting at the end of June, it will visit of 12 of Niagara’s municipalities in the lead up to the 2022 Canada Games.