Music: {allcanada} Pan Am torch relay gets off to inauspicious start

Sunday, May 31, 2015

{allcanada} Pan Am torch relay gets off to inauspicious start

TORONTO – The Pan Am torch is off on a cross Canada odyssey despite being thrown a few obstacles by Mother Nature this weekend.

Severe thunderstorms put a damper on the kickoff of the torch relay yesterday, causing delays in the festivities and drenching onlookers.

But Olympic gold medallist Rosie MacLennan led off the torch-bearers taking the flame through the streets of Toronto — eventually it was handed off to former astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, federal sport minister Bal Gosal, Lieutenant-Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell and Toronto Mayor John Tory were on hand to show their support.

Wynne called the rained out event a great example of "Canadian improvisation" and thanked the nearly 10-thousand athletes taking part in the Games that start in Toronto in July.

About three-thousand torch-bearers will run legs of the 41-day relay that will take the flame to more than 130 Canadian communities.

The torch will visit a number of northern Ontario communities today including Thunder Bay.