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OTTAWA - The season of peace and hope took on new meaning Saturday as the nation's capital threw a huge Christmas bash for the second coming of the Olympic torch.
It was an eclectic blend of twinkling Christmas lights, fireworks and the Olympic flame, Christmas carols mixed with thumping rock music, best wishes for a merry Yuletide alternating with exhortations to Canada's athletes to go for the gold.
The torch relay's official arrival on Parliament Hill coincided with the annual lighting of almost 300,000 dazzling Christmas lights but few seemed to find any dissonance in the apparently mixed messages.
"If we think of the message of just trying to have a better world and to unite and all of that, I think the messages definitely coincide," said Chantale Lussier, one of about 10,000 candle-waving revellers who turned out for the spectacle.
The torch made a brief appearance last Thursday in the House of Commons, having detoured from its scheduled relay route in Montreal as part of a lobbying effort by Canadian Olympic officials for more federal funding for elite athletes.
But Saturday was for the people of Ottawa as 187 torch bearers snaked through city streets, cheered on by scattered crowds along the way and culminating with the party on the Hill.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper segued easily from Christmas cheer to Olympic boosterism as he addressed the crowd, noting that the festive season is a time to "take stock of the year that was and make plans for the year to come.
"And ladies and gentlemen, 2010 is going to be a nation-defining year for this great country, Canada . . . Two months from today, the eyes of the world will turn to Canada as we host the 21st Winter Olympic Games."
Harper asserted that Canada "now boasts one of the strongest Winter Olympic teams in the entire world." And he predicted that the Vancouver Games will prove to be "Canada's arrival as a sporting powerhouse."
British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell went even further.
"That torch is a golden thread the pulls our country together and unites us behind our commitment to our athletes so in 2010 in Vancouver for the first time in Canadian Olympic history, Canadian athletes will win gold medal after gold medal after gold medal," Campbell predicted.
Throughout the day, the torch was repeatedly cited as a symbol of peace and hope - sentiments often associated with Christmas.
For former general Senator Romeo Dallaire, who witnessed genocidal atrocities in Rwanda 15 years ago, taking part in the relay had special significance.
"These opportunities give hope to the world," he said, still somewhat breathless after his brisk 300-metre jog up to the steps of Rideau Hall, the Governor General's residence.
"That even with the many imploding nations and other frictions, that we can still get together and compete and not beat up on each other - in fact, be quite proud of each other."
For Canada, Dallaire said the torch relay "is a great sign of serenity and unity" in a country that has learned how to get along despite linguistic and ethnic tensions.
"We'd better remain an example in the world and not retrench back home," he added sternly.
Carolyn Waldo, two-time gold medallist in synchronized swimming, picked up the torch in front of the prime minister's residence.
Harper's wife, Laureen, and daughter Rachel were on hand to cheer her on, decked out in Olympic scarves and the ubiquitous red mittens with white maple leaves on the palm.
Waldo said carrying the torch was "just as exciting, if not more exciting" than actually competing in the Olympic Games.
"There's nothing like celebration of human spirit like this . . . This is really what humanity is all about. It's just ordinary people celebrating the Olympic Games, celebrating unity and peace and harmony and it's amazing."
