Gateway to the North September 2018

september 2018

Olympic skaters bring show to Prince George Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

T Ap file photo

Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir perform during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, on Feb. 25. The Olympic gold medalists will perform in Prince George on Oct. 13 during the Thank You Canada Tour.

he top ranked Canadian figure skaters in each Olympic discipline are coming to Prince George.

Together.

The most successful women’s, men’s, pairs and ice dance competitors – current gold medalists, every one – are joining forces for a show that cuts new ice for this flamboyant sport.

And, as an added bonus, coming with them is one of the world’s alltime superstars of the ice.

The audience will get the full spectrum of our nation’s stars from the PyeongChang Games.

The Figure Skating Team event’s gold medal went to Canada in 2018 and that all-star contingent was represented by veteran pairs

skaters Meagan Duhamel & Eric Radford, our top-ranked woman Kaetlyn Osmond, our top-rank man Patrick Chan, and our acclaimed ice dance duo of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.

Youngster Gabrielle Daleman, 20, was also a member of that team of champions.

She cannot come on the tour involving Prince George so in her stead is a legend of the figure skating realm and a national sports hero.

Elvis Stojko won the world title three times, was a two-time Olympic silver medalist and set records that advanced the sport itself.

Osmond won the PyeongChang bronze medal in the women’s event to go along with her team silver from Sochi and team gold in South Korea.

— see SKATERS, page 4

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Pioneering northern doctor, author mourned Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

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t tells quite a story when being the author of seven books is not the most notable thing in the final chapter of a person’s life.

Dr. Eldon Lee won a Jeanne Clarke Memorial Local History Award for his efforts with the pen, leaving behind a library of a legacy, but his accomplishments as a writer and historian are on the inner pages of his life.

The chief attribute of Lee’s life are the thousands of babies that were born into his hands, and the thousands of women who entrusted their healthcare to this dedicated physician-surgeon.

Lee was devoted to northern B.C., based in Prince George since 1962 but responsible for patients across the breadth of the region. He was, when he first settled here, the only obstetrics/gynaecology specialist

north of Kamloops.

His family, despite their grief, spotted a comical glint when he happened to pass away on Labour Day. As devoted as Lee was to his day to day profession, he was also a champion for northern medicine in the broader sense. As a pilot, he knew better than most the value of building healthcare professional capacity in this area. He was an early advocate for the Northern Medical Program now thriving at UNBC (plus the additional medical professions at UNBC and CNC that complement the doctor training).

For all his efforts and articulations, he was inducted into the Northern Medical Hall of Fame in 2017.

—see LEE MOVED, page 6 Citizen file photo

Dr. Eldon Lee speaks at the Maternity and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the University Hospital of Northern B.C. in June 2007.

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Skaters broke new ground for Canada — from page 1 Only six Canadian female singles competitors have ever won an Olympic medal and Osmond is the most decorated of them all.

She also won the world title in 2018, which hasn’t happened for a Canadian woman since Karen Magnussen did it in 1973.

On the men’s individual side, Chan has been one of Canada’s darlings of the ice since he won his first world championship in 2011, setting the world record for highest overall score in the process. He would win two more world titles and 10 Canadian men’s titles along his way. He picked up team silver in Sochi as well as the individual silver, and finally won his long anticipated Olympic gold in the team event in PyeongChang.

Duhamel and Radford went into PyeongChang as one of the most decorated figure skating pairs in Canadian history (seven national pairs titles, two world titles, plus Olympic silver in Sochi), and they made more history in South Korea when they powered their way to a bronze medal

and in the process became the first pair to ever complete a quadruple throw jump at the Olympics.

The Olympics before, they became the first to ever land a side-by-side triple Lutz in Olympic competition.

In the South Korean ice dance event, the whole world fell in love with the electric chemistry of Virtue and Moir, a pair that transcended nationality to become one of the most beloved skating stories of the modern age. On the ice, Virtue and Moir have won 2018 gold and 2014 silver in the team event, plus their ice dance silver in Sochi and historic ice dance gold at the Vancouver Olympics (first Canadian and first North American couple to ever do so).

When they added ice dance gold in PyeonChang, it made them onto some of the most decorated Canadian Olympians ever (only Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes have more with six each).

Some countries aggrandize their world champions and Olympians by lionization.

— see TOUR, page 5

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Tour pays tribute to fans — from page 4 In one more act of Canadian cultural exemplification, these heroes of figure skating are travelling the nation under the title the Thank You Canada Tour to pay tribute to the fans who supported their lifelong development and the thousands of young up-and-coming figure skaters who will be tomorrow’s stars.

Virtue, Moir, Duhamel, Radford, Chan,

Osmond and Stojko all perform together at CN Centre on Oct. 13 as part of their 30-city the Thank You Canada Tour going from coast to coast.

Tickets range from $39 to $119 at the TicketsNorth website, with $2 from every sale going to the Canadian Tire Jumpstart charity that gets more Canadian youth down the positive path of athletics and fitness

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Lee moved to P.G. in 1929 — from page 3 His roots in this area dig deeply, back to his time growing up on a ranch in the Williams Lake area of the Cariboo. Coming to Prince George was like a trip to the big city, back in 1929 when he was but a boy of six.

His first job was for the Prince George Citizen when he moved to Prince George that year. He sold newspapers for five cents apiece, usually giving the money to his mother for family matters but sometimes pinching a few coins for himself, buying the occasional candy bar at Candy Allen’s Confection Store on George Street.

He even saved enough (75 cents) to get a pair of roller skates from Jake Leith, who had a hardware store on Third Avenue and, according to Lee, probably regretted the transaction thereafter since Lee “made a nuisance of myself” skating up and down the wooden sidewalks.

“I came to Prince George for schooling and to Millar Addition School I went,” Lee told The Citizen in a 1999 feature story.

“The school was situated just west of

Lee Connaught Hill and here my academic path was shaped in the formidable presence of Miss Eliza Milligan. She firmly believed that sparing the rod spoiled the child, particularly boys, and soon discerned that my education needed attention particularly when I said zee instead of zed.”

— see DOCTOR FLEW BOMBERS, page 8

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Doctor flew bombers overseas during Second World War — from page 6 Lee was born American, so it was a natural mistake. Lee was born on May 5, 1923 in Happy Valley, Calif.

His immersion into Canadian culture was forged by the Second World War. Lee flew bombers for the Royal Canadian Air Force, enlisting at age 19 and participating in overseas missions.

His international service to society continued with his education years.

He went to universities in the United States and England on his path to medical letters.

The language of medicine is Greek and Lee also became a scholar of Greek (and Latin), holding regular instructional meetings in Prince George for decades as he sparked modern interest in these classic tongues so important still in the world of academia.

His passions for medicine, northern living, agricultural lifestyle, lifelong education, historical story and books was easily

matched by his love of family. He and life-love Marjorie Cartmell celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary on Aug. 22.

Along with Marjorie, he is survived by children Vickie (Art) Brown, Barbara (George) Cruwys, Peter (Christine), Stuart (Michelle); grandchildren Sarah, Laura, Ben, Elicia, Brianna, Erin, Amy, Mike, James, Jonah, Emersyn; great-grandchildren Taylor, Kayden, Evan, Mya, Olivia, Robert; and was predeceased by mother Shirley, brother Todd, sons Gerry and Robert.

In 1999 Lee said, “They say it takes a whole village to raise a child and my own experiences seem to confirm this, for I received a lot of love, encouragement and direction from the experiences encountered in Prince George. I trust that this atmosphere continues to this day.”

A celebration of Lee’s life was held on Sept. 15 at St. Giles Presbyterian Church in Prince George, where he was a regular member for many years.

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CNC president Reiser retiring Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca

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hiring committee will be struck and a head hunter will soon be hired as the College of New Caledonia’s Henry Reiser announced on Sept. 7 he will retire as president after serving his entire five-year term, which concludes in June 2019.

“President Reiser has fulfilled an ambitious mandate over the past few years,” Gil Malfair, College of New Caledonia Board of Governors chair, said. “His leadership has resulted in three consecutive growth budgets and expansions in both programming and infrastructure. Henry’s experience in developing international partnerships has also helped grow the College’s reputation world-wide. But the biggest impact of his leadership has benefitted northern B.C. students in rural and remote locations who now have access to an ever-expanding

REiser range of courses delivered by DDI (digital delivery instruction).”

Reiser’s term to date has seen more than $45 million invested in new buildings and redevelopment at CNC’s six campuses.

— see ‘ONCE THE, page 10

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‘Once the new president is in place, I’m going fishing’ — from page 9 Notable in education is the start of civil engineering technology and the first intake of CNC’s sonography program, which will begin in January. It will be the second program of its kind offered in the province.

“My academic career has been extremely rewarding, and retiring wasn’t an easy decision to make as I’ve truly enjoyed my time at CNC,” Reiser said. “I’m grateful for the support I’ve received from employees, students, the Board of Governors, donors, government and private sector partners, and my tremendous leadership team. The past four years have been a collective effort of all employees working towards a strategic direction with primary focus on student success. This is truly what CNC is known for and I’m so proud to be a part of that.”

Reiser said he is prepared to help with

My academic career has been extremely rewarding, and retiring wasn’t an easy decision to make as I’ve truly enjoyed my time at CNC. — Henry Reiser, president College of New Caledonia the transition as the new president starts in September 2019. Reiser is retiring in Prince George and looks forward to volunteering in the community.

“Once the new president is in place, I’m going fishing,” Reiser said.

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Beaudry has sights set on 2022 Olympics Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

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arah Beaudry still hasn’t seen the video of her impressive Olympic debut on the biathlon slopes of Pyeongchang, South Korea, but she will get to that someday.

There’s no doubt the memory remains fresh in her mind, what it was like to be called into action as a last-second replacement and wear the flag for Canada in her first Olympic race as she nailed 19 of 20 targets on her way to a 29th-place finish.

It’s a moment in Prince George sporting history that won’t soon be forgotten.

Now at 24, Beaudry is beginning her next four-year cycle ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, armed with the knowledge she’s good enough to compete at the highest level against the best athletes this planet has to offer.

Filling in for Megan Tandy, her Caledonia Nordic Ski Club mentor on the Olympic

Beaudry team, who was too sick to race in Korea, Beaudry helped Canada to a respectable 10th-place finish in the women’s relay.

— see ‘I LEFT KOREA, page 12

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‘I left Korea really motivated’ — from page 11 That and her top-30 individual result in Pyeongchang, coupled with a best-ever 24th-place result in a World Cup sprint in Oberhof, Germany, provided Beaudry a shot of confidence she hopes will carry over into her second full season on the World Cup tour “I think it’s just really brought more motivation, more excitement, seeing what’s there and what I can do to get better and where I need to go,” said Beaudry. “I left Korea really motivated to train again and get training for this coming season.”

The little nine-year-old girl from Prince George – who first picked up a rifle while watching her dad Pierre train her older brother Sylvain on the makeshift shooting range tucked away in the woods of Otway Nordic Centre – has grown up. She’s found her way to the big leagues of biathlon and is learning how difficult it is to take the next step and become a World Cup medal contender.

Summer is the time for conditioning and muscle-building for Beaudry, but she had to move indoors a few times in August to keep from breathing in wildfire smoke.

“There’s smoke in Canmore as well and that just means more creative training and when it is nice making sure you get out,” said Beaudry.

“In Canmore we have the roller ski treadmill so right before I came we did some intense training on that, which is useful because you can do it inside and it’s ski-specific rather than just running on a treadmill or going on a spin bike. You just have to be smart.”

The first World Cup stop is in Poklijuka, Slovenia, Dec. 2-9. The World Cup tour returns to North America for the first time since 2016, right in Beaudry’s backyard at Canmore Nordic Centre, Feb. 4-10, followed by races in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Beaudry finished 38th in the sprint in 2016 at Canmore.

— see ‘WE HAVE MORE, page 14

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‘We have more expenses related to training that other athletes would get covered’ — from page 12 Beaudry is carded as a senior team member and receives a monthly allow-

ance through the national team athletes’ assistance program. She’s also sponsored by the National Firearms Association. She gets

money from CanFund in the lead-up to an Olympic year and receives a grant as a parttime Starbucks employee in Canmore.

She makes enough to get by and follow the World Cup circuit but still has to pay out of pocket for some training camps. Unlike some of her European counterparts, who make a comfortable living through endorsements, Beaudry’s certainly not getting rich in her sport.

“I have sufficient funding but Europeans laugh at us when we tell them we have to pay to go on IBU Cup (races),” she said.

“We have more expenses related to training that other athletes would get covered by their federations.”

In mid-July, Biathlon Canada hired Pavel Lantsov, a former Russian team shooting

specialist, to work with head coach Matthias Ahrens. Lantsov will focus on the range while Ahrens will zero in on physical training and teaching skiing technique. Former women’s team coach Roddy Ward will fill a new position as long term athlete development director.

Meanwhile, Tandy, who turned 30 on Sept. 10, is training hard at her home in Germany to keep her spot on Canada’s World Cup team and is intent on sticking with the national team for one more Winter Olympics. Matt Neumann of Prince George, 29, has retired after years of struggling to try to make the World Cup team, while Burns Lake native Emily Dickson, 21, will start the season on Canada’s under-24 development team.

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