Stuart Ballantyne

Stuart Ballantyne, CEO, 2015 Canada Winter Games | BCBusiness

Stuart Ballantyne, CEO of the 2015 Canada Winter Games, talks about leaving the Vancouver Giants and his vision for the Games.

On August 29, the former chief operating officer of the Vancouver Giants hockey club headed 750 kilometres north to Prince George to take the helm of the 2015 Canada Winter Games. Stuart Ballantyne has been at the top of the sports game in Vancouver – among other notable accomplishments, his resumé includes project director for the Molson Canadian Hockey House during the 2010 Winter Olympics and general manager of Molson Indy in Vancouver from 1996-2003 – and he’s anxious to put on a Games that all of B.C. can be proud of. Having earned two gold medals in swimming at the 1977 Canada Summer Games, he also knows first-hand what the Games mean to the athletes.

What made you decide to leave the Vancouver Giants for a job in Prince George?

I think ultimately a chance to join the Canada Games movement. I like planning and executing events over time. I loved working with the Giants, but this suited me more. The chance to do all of that planning work and build a team and execute something that was near and dear to my heart. I love amateur sports, so the chance to do the Canada Games I knew would be a great one.


How does the daily commute in Prince George compare with your former commute from Maple Ridge to Vancouver?

You know, I was an hour to an hour and 15 minutes each way [in Maple Ridge], so when you take two and a half hours each day, times how many days you go into work, you know you are spending more than 20 days in the car commuting a year, and that’s almost the better part of a month. And I said, ‘Boy, there’s got to be a better way. There’s got to be something that we can do differently.’ That’s why this makes a lot more sense from that standpoint. I am 15 minutes from work now and my office is a block away from [my daughter] Maddie’s school and it’s just great. It’s a great chance for us to really bond as a family and still get a lot of work done. 


What is your vision for the 2015 Games?

I think ultimately it’s a chance to showcase northern B.C. to athletes and have an experience that they will never forget throughout their entire careers. 


What did winning two gold medals in the 1977 Canada Summer Games mean to you as an athlete?

The Canada Games was something at age 16 that sort of led you to believe that, ‘Boy I need to work harder so that I can go to an Olympics someday because this is pretty cool.’ That’s why these Games are important, because it gives those kids the experience and sort of that big bump to their career. They are competing against the best kids in their age bracket in the entire country; so when you win it’s even more special because at that particular moment in time you can say you were the fastest or jumped the highest of any kid your age in the country. 


What impact will the Games have on Prince George and northern B.C.?

It’s important as we go through this whole process that people understand there is a great asset up here in the north. Sometimes people think, ‘Wow, why won’t people come here?’ But part of it is getting them here and showing them what’s here, and I think that will be the secondary goal of ours: to make sure that the people that are travelling here between now and the Games and for the Games will want to come back. 
I have only been here for a short time and I am already enjoying it. This is an outdoor community and we are taking in everything this community offers 
and we really want to soak that up and 
I hope other people do that as well. Whether some of the team members 
or the staff come from other parts of Canada or the southern part of B.C., I think that they too have to have that same experience and realize that this is a special place. 


What do you hope people will say about you and the Games once they are over? 

I hope they are very, very satisfied with what the Games have done and the idea of it opening the door to the north so that people take the north seriously when it comes time to host major international competitions. This is a very viable place with some great assets in athletic facilities and people and scenery and everything that Canada has to offer. So I hope that they say, ‘That was special and we should really consider going back to northern British Columbia at some point again.’ As for myself, I hope that people realize that I am passionate about what I do and that I am passionate about doing it for northern B.C. and for B.C and for Canada, and that we leave the mark of the Games. It’s not about the individual, but that we do a great job and that people understand I am not from the Lower Mainland, or from Toronto, but right now I am from here and I want to do a great job for everybody.