The flame of the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver arrived Friday, October 30th, in Victoria, Western Canada aboard a Canadian military plane, according the live broadcast coverage by various television channels.

The mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson, who descended the the plane wearing a miner’s lamp housing, brought the flame for the first time on Canadian soil.

The Chairman of the Organizing Committee, John Furlong, VANOC’s CEO, the Premier of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, all wearing uniforms for the Olympics, gave brief speeches welcoming the Olympic values and expressed their pride that Canada will host the Winter Olympics, “the biggest and best in history”, as the chief of the Federal Government put it.

The flame was to be transported on board a canoe to the parliament of Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, from which it will undergo a 45,000 km tour across Canada. Carried by 12,000 people, it will travel for 106 days before arriving in Vancouver, to illuminate the Opening Ceremony to be held on February 12.