Take the untraveled road in your own community, you’ll never know what you’ll find.
That’s the advice executive producer Mark Lysakowski of The Amazing Race Canada offered during an interview with The Citizen.
“That’s how we come up with the show,” Lysakowski said, who is also the showrunner.
“We say ‘hey, let’s go over here and see what happens.’”
The Amazing Race Canada came to Prince George in May to film the fifth episode in season 11. It airs Tuesday, Aug. 12.
The double whammy is that there is a Prince George duo in the race, siblings Grace Dove and Joe Syme, who viewers will see compete in their home town in the episode.
The Amazing Race Canada is a CTV summer series that challenges teams of two to race across the country — and sometimes beyond — to complete physical and mental challenges in pursuit of a grand prize of $250,000 courtesy of FUZE Iced Tea, a trip around the world and two 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV SS vehicles. The Amazing Race Canada is hosted by skeleton bobsled Olympic gold medalist Jon Montgomery and based on the popular U.S. version.
“The Amazing Race Canada has been on the air for a long time so it’s nice to go to places that are excited about us,” Lysakowski said.
“I spend a lot of time looking at my map of Canada and I’ve always known of Prince George and I’ve been very aware of Northern BC because our first foray into Northern BC was Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii.”
Lysakowski said he’s had a long history with BC Tourism and especially with Northern BC Tourism.
“While it took until season 11 to get to Prince George, I always knew we’d get there,” Lysakowski said.
“I was like ‘I wanna know more about Prince George’ and people said it was a regional hub and there are a lot of cool things there. So it was exciting to finally get to Prince George.”
There are several locations in Prince George that are showcased and picking and choosing those sites to feature in the show becomes quite the process, Lysakowski added.
An episode producer is assigned to each show and for the Prince George episode that was Ann Camilleri.
“She passed away shortly after we finished filming the season so we dedicated the whole season to her memory," Lysakowski said. "Ann produced that particular episode and during the process she talked to the tourism people, she talked to the city, she met with people and she got on the ground and she figured things out and then we look at what are the best things. So it’s really these producers who are very determined and creative and I will remember Ann for the rest of my life. She produced three episodes this season. She had a way of finding things and she would run into so-and-so at the café and she would say ‘oh, what about this?’ There was a whole process to it and that’s how you find out what’s happening in Prince George and that’s how things come to be.”
In addition to a large crew that travels with the show, The Amazing Race Canada hired about 40 or 50 Prince George residents to help, Lysakowski added.
“To me the Prince George episode is kind of like a classic Race episode where the racers land, do their thing and hit the pit stop,” Lysakowski said.
“It’s a classic original Race episode that’s tried and true, which people love and it just sees a really competitive group of racers fighting for that mat (at the end of that leg of the race) and we are coming out of a non-elimination episode so the stakes are high. What my thing is about Prince George is the rugged beauty of the landscape. I love geography, which is fitting that I do this show.”
Lysakowski talked about going up to Connaught Hill Park which was scouted in winter so he really had no idea what it would look like when they got there in the spring.
“It’s a beautiful vista,” Lysakowski said.
The iconic Prince George Cutbanks were also considered as a location to be featured during the show but it was difficult to access, Lysakowski added.
“Jon got up there but moving the racers up there was a whole thing,” Lykowski said.
“I was fascinated by that location. But we get into a lot of forestry stories and to me geography is the most interesting. Aside from the welcoming people and we felt so welcomed. When we were at the Aquatic Centre we saw a lot of locals there having a great time and it was packed. What surprised me the most is just how active and fit everyone is in Prince George. When we were scouting up at the university the sport centre was bumpin’ on a Tuesday night. Everyone was there, the parking lot was full and I’m like 'what’s going on?' And this is just what people do. People are out doing things. They’re not sitting at home trying to stay warm. So good for you!”
Lysakowski said besides the Canadian landscape he loves meeting the people at all the locations.
“There’s the tourism story and Mr. PG is heavily placed in the show and I’m happy to do that story but I also want to know what people do when they’re not at work and what do they do for work?” Lysakowski said.
“Because The Race is not just about promoting tourism, it’s about the people,” he said.
“I grew up reading Richard Scarry’s book What Do People Do All Day? So to me The Race is to represent the whole of the country. There’s the university, the wheelchair badminton, the sport centre, the Aquatic Centre – it needs to be a full-rounded experience because the show itself from the racers to the challenges to the locations needs to represent the country as a whole and that’s our philosophy. To me it’s telling the story of a community and that’s how we come up with the locations and challenges.”
Dove is a Canadian Screen Award nominated actor who appeared in The Revenant as Leonardo DiCaprio’s wife; Alaska Daily, a television series with Hilary Swank and in How It Ends with Forest Whitaker, as well as the movie and television series Bones of Crows. Dove lives in Vancouver now but was born and raised in Prince George.
Grace’s brother Joe Syme is a diamond driller from Prince George.
“And of course, Grace and Joe are from Prince George, they know the city, so they got to go down memory lane,” Lysakowski said.
“In the episode I think you’ll see their experience in Prince George hit close to home in a good way.”
Lysakowski said he was getting on his pseudo-soap box as the interview with The Citizen concluded.
“In the current world that we live in I always encourage people that if you can get out there and explore Canada," he said. "It doesn’t have to be coast-to-coast-to-coast because that’s something not everyone can do — but go out and explore your community, try things differently and I think people in Prince George do, so I’m not making much of a preach there but I find in Toronto I don’t explore the city as much as I should. You don’t have to get on a plane, just go for a drive and explore the community you live in and you will be surprised by what you’re going to find. We live in the most beautiful place in the world. Enjoy it.”
