It only takes a couple of words out of the mouth of Bobby McMahon to figure out he grew up in Scotland.
That Dundee accent and his knowledge of soccer led McMahon to a job as a commentator on Sportsnet's Soccer Central program and on the U.S.-based Fox Soccer TV network.
It wasn't soccer that brought McMahon to Prince George this week, however. It was his involvement with the Canada Games Society as a consultant, having served as chief operating officer for the 1999 Pan-Am Games in Winnipeg.
In less than two years, Prince George will play host to the 2015 Canada Winter Games and planning is key in staging such a colossal event. With 3,500 athletes in 20 sports competing in the two weeks of the Games and 5,000 volunteers needed to make that possible, Games organizers have been picking McMahon's brain for ideas of how to make that happen. As part of the Canada Games council's transfer of knowledge program, he's already made seven trips to Prince George since 2010 to work with the local organizing committee.
"The Games are a massive exercise in partnerships and community development," said McMahon. "On one hand you've got the board laying out the organization and objectives of the Games and your staff is planning and making it a timely thing to make sure you're coming in on budget.
"But at the same time you're bringing in the committee into this and you have a situation where you're going to need 5,000 volunteers. That's such a large number of people to commit to an event and the logistical planning of that is very complex and very critical. We know it can be done because it's been done in smaller communities than Prince George. You need the community to be fully behind this to make it a successful event."
In addition to the legacy of facilities, such as the new Kin 1 arena and improvements at Otway Nordic Centre, McMahon says the Games will provide unprecedented opportunities for the city to attract future sporting events and market itself as a tourist destination and business location.
"You will be shown on national television in virtually every living room in Canada," he said. "You've been given a product you can use in many different ways to promote your community to people who don't know anything about your city except the name of it. I don't think you can buy that kind of marketing."
McMahon has been to the Canada Winter Games in Halifax in 2011 and the Summer Games in Brandon in 1997 and has seen how the opening and closing ceremonies and the arts and culture festivals that coincide with the sporting events make the Games an event that appeals to everybody. The likes of Catriona LeMay Doan, Steve Nash, Jeff Francis and Sidney Crosby are Canada Games alumni and McMahon says the 2015 Games will attract a similar quality of athletes.
"For many of these athletes, this is their Olympics, the peak of their athletic careers, because they all can't be the best, and they will look at the friendships they make and the competitions they're involved with as a major part of their lives for as long as they live," McMahon said.
"You'll be seeing the next generation of great Canadian athletes. Prince George is going to be the centre of sport in Canada for that month in 2015."
The Canada Games were established in 1967 and McMahon says Canada is one of few countries in the world to have a national multisport event that brings the best athletes together, alternating every two years between summer and winter games. He says it unifies the country much like the Grey Cup game and Stanley Cup playoffs.
"Canadians do not know how lucky they are to have something like the Canada Games, because if you talk to people in other countries, this is what they would love to have to develop their young athletes," said McMahon. "We are such a massive country, and to be able to take 3,000 or 4,000 sports people, not just sports people but people who will go on to be your community leaders and business leaders for years to come, and the lessons they take from each other in an atmosphere like that for a couple of weeks, how can you put a value on that?"
