Vancouver Information and Newspaper

With only days to go until festivities begin in Vancouver, city residents and members of local sports clubs showed their colours yesterday to demonstrate support for Canada’s Olympians.

Dressed in red, more than 100 people, including members of the Ottawa Valley Curling Association, Ottawa Pacers and Gloucester Concordes speedskating clubs, and uOttawa students converged at Dow’s Lake to help the National Capital Commission create a video dedicated to Canada’s Olympic athletes.

The video of the event, which will be released through sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, as well as the NCC website this week, marks the first time the NCC will have used viral operations to show support for Canadian athletes.  

“It’s a great way to show our support to Canadian athletes and celebrate this great event for our country,” said Guy Laflamme, vice-president of the Capital Experience, Communications and Marketing with the National Capital Commission.

He expects the video to travel quickly.

“That’s the magic of viral marketing. In a matter of a few hours, you can have exponential reach across not only the country, but around the world. As far as we know, there aren’t too many of these initiatives, so hopefully this will stimulate other initiatives across the country.”

“I think it’s a great idea,” said participant Mike Gall. “Being the capital of Canada, it’s good to show our pride.”

There will be two more opportunities to take part in similar events during the Olympics.

On the last weekend of Winterlude, there will be an event in Dow’s Lake, to cheer for Canada’s speedskaters.

“When the speedskaters are on the start line, they will have heard of thousands of people in the capital cheering for them,” Laflamme said.