They're Larger Than Life

If you've been anywhere near the intersection of Burrard and Dunsmuir streets this week, you've no doubt taken in the sight.
Then again, it's pretty hard to miss the huge poster — we're guessing 8x10. Feet that is — of soon-to-be Canadian ice dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir that hangs in the front window of the main Bank of Montreal branch in downtown Vancouver.
A little more attention got drawn to it late Friday morning, when the skaters themselves showed up to pose for some promotional shots with 10-time Canadian champions Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz. Naturally, the odd passer-by did a double take — had to chuckle when I saw one guy run out of the adjacent BMO tower and ask Moir "are you actually the guy in that picture?"
People were even getting cabs to pull over in front of the bank before jumping out, cameras in hand, to snap photos (okay, it turned out they were part of the Moir clan. But work with me on this, people).
Point is, Skate Canada obviously sees some star power building here and, rest assured, you'll see plenty more of Virtue and Moir in the runup to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. And if it works out they catch the fancy of Canadians the same way Bourne and Kraatz did during their heyday, well, the folks who run the sport in this country should consider themselves doubly blessed.
Nothing sells like stars, after all.
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Question overhead on the bus ride to Pacific Coliseum today: "Do they ever get sunshine in this city?"
Beginning to wonder the same thing myself. Especially since the forecast before I came out here was for sunshine and blue skies for most the week (apparently, that's now next week's forecast).
That being said, there are two reasons not to complain: It's not raining. And there's not a snowflake to be seen on the ground anywhere. How often can you say that about a Canadian city in January?