Stalwart Scots Carry on Tradition
Mother Nature threw her worst at the Canmore Highland Games last Sunday (Aug. 31, 2008) but the Scots proved once again to be a stalwart bunch.
Almost 4,000 dancers, pipers, drummers, athletes and spectators ignored the blanket of white
stuff on the ground and the steady snowfall that lasted until mid-afternoon, instead concentrating on competition and collegiality.
It was, weather-wise, the worst the 18-year-old Games has had to endure, but “we always say
the Games will go on, rain, snow or shine,” said organizer Sally Garen.
“The competitors came and competed and unbelievably, there were very few no-shows.”
“In our second year we woke up to four inches of snow on the field, but it didn’t keep
snowing all day.”
Attendance was down about a third of the usual 6,000 attendees, but very few competitors cancelled, she said. “The competitors came and competed and unbelievably, there were very
few no shows.
Most of the judges said they had never worked in such severe weather, and were surprised that the level of play from the pipers and drummers was as high as if it were a normal summer
day.”
Many of the vendors chose not to set up their booths, both in fear of low turnout and to preserve their woolens and goods from the wet weather. Only one event, the Black Powder display, had to be cancelled, and the Highland dancing competition was moved from Stan Rogers Stage inside to the small gymnasium of Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Academy.
The heated beer tent, not surprisingly, did a booming business, and the evening Ceilidh, with entertainment by local Highland dancers, a troupe of Calgary Irish step dancers, and the L.S.-based Celtic rock band Stand Easy, was nearly a sell-out.
One of the most successful facets of the day was a Scotch tasting, hosted by the Hon. Alexander Bruce of Scotland, a direct descendant of King Robert the Bruce as well as James Bruce, the Eighth Earl of Elgin and an early Governor General of Canada. More than 150 people paid $150 to $250 for a two hour sampling of Adelphi Distillery’s 14- to 31-year-old Scotches, with Lord Bruce having escorted dozens of Calgarians aboard the CPR steam train The Empress out to Canmore for the event.
Prior to the tasting, Lord Bruce presented a plaque to the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC), honouring Sir William Whyte, a Scottish-born railway man who rose through the ranks of the CPR to become vice-president of the company. His principle contribution was to open branch lines throughout western Canada that facilitated settlement in the west, and to create the chain of signature hotels across the west bearing the company name, including the Banff Springs Hotel. He oversaw construction of Edmonton’s High Level Bridge, and that city’s Whyte Avenue bears his name.
In the Rockies, Mount Whyte, just above Lake Agnes, is named for him.
Former ACC president Peter Fuhrmann, who together with ACC vice-president of facilities Carl Hannigan accepted the plaque, said it will be placed on the mountain, somewhere near the peak. Next year a centennial climb is planned for the 2,983-metre mountain, first scaled in 1909.
The demise of Zoom Airlines meant two Scottish officials were unable to attend the Games to launch a joint Canada-Scotland photo project entitled This Is Who We Are.
