By Cheryl Jahn

Canada Winter Games ten years past

Feb 13, 2025 | 2:12 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The very first Canada Games was of the winter variety in 1967. Ten years ago, Prince George was up against Kelowna and Kamloops to host the Games. And Prince George was the successful bidder.

It was the post-election honeymoon period for newly-elected mayor Lyn Hall.

“What a time it was for me to be mayor,” recalls Lyn Hall. “Sworn in, in November 2014 and then, before you knew it, the Games were here. It just exploded. There was just a massive amount of things going on. So it was a fantastic time.”

The 2015 Games was the largest multi-sport event ever hosted in Northern British Columbia, and marked the first time the Winter Games were held in British Columbia. More than 2,400 young Canadian athletes were a part of over 3,400 total participants from across Canada competing in 19 unique sporting competitions.

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“It really turned us into a location that people would consider for major games,” says Hall. “Let’s look at the World Curling championships and let’s see what’s going on out at Otway and all the national and international events they’ve held. And I think it really opened the doors for other organizations to say, ‘Hey, they can handle this size of a Games.”

It was also the first time the Lheidli T’enneh became the first official First Nations host of the Canada Games.

“On the board of directors, which I was a founding member, along with Tracy Calogheros from the Museum, she advocated extremely strongly for Lheidli T’enneh to become a host First Nation,” explains Josh Seymour, Councillor with the Lheidli T’enneh.

All the signage had all three languages: English, French and Dakelh. And Seymour feels that was a defining moment for the Lheidli T’enneh on the national stage.

“When they’re talking about the medal design, which is also a first, they said, ‘Local artist Jennifer Pighin draws from First Nations roots.’ And then they said, ‘Oh, the Aboriginal groups are now participating.’ But seeing how language has changed from a pan-Indigenous word to actually definitive names shows that the self-identity of each and individual nation is something that is important that everybody should recognize.”