Grey Cup weekend day 1: Tom Wright, Brent Bambury, and more

Dan and I arrived in Winnipeg around 2pm on Friday... it turned out we were on the same flight with the Rev. Gary Thorne (best known in Halifax for his tenure at St. George's Round Church through the June 1994 fire and rebuilding). Couldn't help sneaking a peek—what does Gary Thorne read on the plane on his way to a meeting of the Primate’s Theological Commission (of the Anglican Church of Canada on the Blessing of Same-Sex Unions)? Not so shocking really — Richard Hooker.

I had tried and failed to get tickets to the Winnipeg taping of Brent Bambury's Go, but Dan and I random happened across the taping site while wandering around the Forks... so we craned our necks around a corner and caught him in front of the live audience interviewing Judy Wasylycia-Leis.

But the highlight of the night was the Atlantic Schooners "kitchen party" at York the Hotel, featuring the Saskatchewan Roughriders Pep Band (loud! fun!), last year's "Touchdown Atlantic" exhibition game (yes, Dan and I were there too) on the video projection screen, and a chance to drink Keith's with none other than Tom Wright, outgoing commish of the CFL. He told me, as I'm sure he's told many people, that if the 2014 Commonweath Games come to Halifax with the requisite stadium building, so will a new CFL franchise.

Sign on the wall at the party: "Thank you Tom Wright. We appreciate your efforts on East Coast Expanision" (sic).