B.C Highland Games: Helping to Keep
the Flame of Scottish Culture Burning
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HIGHLAND DANCERS give a demonstration in front of the main stage at the B.C. Highland Games in Coquitlam. |
By HARRY McGRATH
GLASGOW - Elements of the recent Scottish election reminded me of another election that took place 8,000 miles away and 121 years ago.
Instead of Salmond, the economist from Linlithgow, versus McConnell, the teacher from Arran, the election for the first Mayor of Vancouver had Malcolm MacLean, the estate agent from Tiree, against Richard Alexander from Edinburgh, the manager of the Hastings Sawmill.
Both elections had problems on polling day although in the Vancouver election they were calculated whereas in Scotland they mixed bad planning with bad luck.
The Scottish election of 2007 had spoiled ballots, stranded helicopters and broken boats, while in 1886 Alexander sent disenfranchised workers to vote for him and the MacLean camp signed blocks of voters into the same rooming house to satisfy the residency requirement.
In Scotland, the Nationalists won by one seat and Salmond became First Minister. In Vancouver, MacLean won by 17 votes (from the 499 cast) and became Mayor.
In both cases the result of the election was met with immediate objections. In Scotland the losing Labour candidate in the constituency of Cunninghame North has only just retracted his threat to go to court over the result.
In Vancouver, objections were raised against MacLean's victory,though they disappeared along with the city as it burned down soon after MacLean was elected (Vancouver's only fire engine The Malcolm MacLean was useless against the wind assisted conflagration).
MacLean proved such an effective leader in providing relief for homeless citizens and in planning a rebuilding programme that he was soon elected for a second term without any election-day shenanigans. Alex Salmond will be hoping the same thing happens to him without anything having to go up in flames.
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PHOTO: Harry Devine
MAYOR, Aldermen and City officials in front of the tent that served as City Hall after the Great Fire, 1886. [City of Vancouver Archives Photograph # LGN 1045]
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A final point of resemblance between the Mayor and the First Minister is that they turned quickly from politics to sport as a means of encouraging civic and national unity. Salmond has already declared his support for a Scottish bid to host the European soccer championships in 2016 and floated the idea of a separate Scottish Olympic team.
MacLean saw Highland games as a way to gather the community and used his other office - president of the newly formed Vancouver St. Andrew's and Caledonian Society - to generate support for the idea of annual Highland games to be held in Vancouver.
MacLean's supporters on the St. Andrew's executive included his defeated opponent Alexander, J.M. Stewart, the city's first police chief, and Andrew Muir, the city's first lawyer.
An initial attempt to organize annual Highland games in Vancouver was made in 1888 but failed because of the lack of an appropriate facility to hold them in. In 1893 the city held its first games and the Vancouver Daily News Advertiser reported a healthy crowd of about 2,000 (out of a total population of 13,709) which enjoyed "a braw Scotch day."
Many of the events practiced at Highland games have their origins as feats of strength intended to sort out the strongest men for military deployment. Eleventh Century Scottish King Malcolm Canmore had men race up Craig Choineach in Scotland for just such a purpose.
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PHOTO: Eldridge Stanton
THE FIRST MAYOR of Vancouver, Malcolm Alexander MacLean, 1886 or 1887.
[City of Vancouver Archives Photograph # Port P221]
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However, organized Highland games like those practiced in the Lower Mainland since 1893, are of a much later genesis and there is a decent case to be made for them being as much a Scots-Canadian tradition as they are a Scottish tradition.
The first "modern" Highland games in Scotland were organized by the St. Fillans Society in 1819, the same year as the North American Highland gathering took place in Glengarry, Ontario in Canada.
Canada may in fact be a more secure keeper of the games tradition than Scotland. A recent report in The Herald newspaper states that Scotland has lost 10 of its traditional amateur gatherings in the last 20 years.
The report goes on to say that "more theatrical-style promotion, a repackaging of strong-men contests and traditional games (which will assuredly offend some purists) is being bankrolled by EventScotland and Perth and Kinross District Council."
The result of this is the Gododdin Games to be held at Blair Atholl and televised on Channel 4. A spokesman explains that "Strongman and Highland games are tired. We are trying to marry the two cultures, sex it up..."
By contrast, Canada has approximately 70 Highland games and festivals fuelled in part by a growing interest in Scottish piping and dancing amongst people who are not of Scottish descent.
For the last three years, I have been the media spokesman for the B.C. Highland Games and have been pleasantly surprised by the interest generated by the games all over the Lower Mainland.
Last year the Global television newsreader was from St. Andrew's and the weatherman's mother from Glasgow, but the station manager from CBC Radio had only been to Scotland once (for a whisky tour), and the young interviewer from Fairchild television had never been there. All were fascinated by the fact that an event of such scale and such skill could take place so far from its place of origin.
Before the 1913 Games in Stanley Park, a poem was read out making the link between the day's games and Scotland. The first verse went like this:
Sae, aince a year at Brockton Green
Oor Scots folk fain foregaither
Ilk buirdly chiel an' Sonsy quean
As braw a crood as ee'r was seen
Amang their native heather.
If Alex Salmond leads Scotland to a new sporting golden age of Olympic teams and the hosting of major soccer championships, it is possible that Highland games in Scotland will be forgotten in the excitement.
If that happens and Canadian Highland games continue to flourish, there may come a time when Scottish games will pride themselves on drawing a "braw a crood" as you would find in Canada. Already there are not many games here that can compete with the show that will be put on in Coquitlam at the end of June.
The B.C. Highland Games are on June 30 at Percy Perry Stadium in Coquitlam. They start at 8:30 AM with an official opening at noon. The games are preceded by a piobaireachd competition in the Evergreen Theatre on Friday evening. One ticket serves both events.
Harry McGrath is the Coordinator of the Centre for Scottish Studies at Simon Fraser University currently residing in Scotland. He can be reached by e-mail at: harrym@sfu.ca.
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