Mark Your Calendars

The cuddly creatures that will be emblematic of the 2010 Winter Olympics is set to be revealed November 27th. Note that more than one is mentioned.

The fact that they're being revealed in Surrey doesn't bode well, however.

Original post from February 2007:

Vancouver's Olympic Mascot

According to this article from last weekend's Sun, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics mascot will be unveiled sometime later this year - possibly by the summer, but most likely in the fall.

Apparently, it's 'always supposed to be [a] cuddly, kid-friendly' emblem, which event organizers will subsequently begin to market like hell.

Let's hope that we do better than past Olympics' mascots like the Montreal Games' Amik the Beaver (above), or the memorable Sydney Games' Syd the Platypus, Millie the Echidna, and Olly the Kookaburra.

As for the 2008 Beijing Games, you can have a look at their five mascots here - Hello Kitty meets the Troll Dolls.

With this dismal history in mind, we have rather low expectations for Vancouver's mascot, despite the fact that our Inukshuk logo (and related merchandising) turned out surprisingly well.

So, among the obvious choices of cuddly creatures that are emblematic of the British Columbia region, which one do you think will wind up being Vancouver's mascot?

• An orca whale
• A grizzly bear
• A sockeye salmon
• A 'huggable homeless' person
• Pamela Anderson

Comments

[ron]

Or, in keeping with the winter theme - the following alternates:

Beluga whale
Polar bear
Arctic char

[cb]

haha pam anderson... fuuunny

what about a raven? or a friendly cedar tree with fern friends? plush hong kong business man? k final one: pokey the hypodermic needle.

[Sungsu]

I realize your post is tongue in cheek, but I think the Spirit Bear (Kermode Bear), the official mammal of British Columbia, would be a fine choice.

[David G.]

My money is on the Spirit Bear. It's unique to BC and easy to anthropomorphize, certainly easier than a fish or whale. However most of the world will undoubtedly think its a polar bear, which would still be okay.

[Canadian Mind]

I would like to see maybe an orca, Grizzle/polar/spirit bear and/or a beaver, aswell as a Canadian goose or a bald/golden eagle. To me, the orca is a must, and the polar bear, beaver, and golden eagle would be nice to have as well, but the orca is a bloody must!

reasoning behind this is that the orca is very west coast, while the polar bear is more remincient of the arctic, the golden eagl;e representing the mountain ranges of Canada (Which we have plenty of on the west coast) and finally the beaver as the national symbol. Could even call the orca Willie. :)