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Lighting the way – Metro US

Lighting the way

The Olympic flame has been in Canada for four days, and already it has been carried across Vancouver Island by foot, bike, wheelchair, canoe, skateboard, logging truck and seaplane.

As it makes its way across the country, carried by 12,000 torchbearers, it will travel by dogsled, Inuit kayak and maybe even surfboard in Tofino.

The long-awaited 106-day torch relay started in Victoria on Friday, when Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson carried the Flame off the plane from Greece, where it was lit on Oct. 22.

Olympians Simon Whitfield, Catriona Le May Doan, Silken Laumann and Alexandre Despatie then carried the torch to the Parliament Buildings for a celebration attended by Premier Gordon Campbell and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Around 200 protesters blocked streets in Victoria at the end of the night, forcing the route to be diverted.

The torch will hit around 1,000 communities from coast-to-coast before being used to light the Olympic cauldron at B.C. Place on Feb. 12.