Helen Darbyshire drove 11 hours to get to Kimberley, B.C., with her eye on the small city’s big Canada Day event: its annual rubber duckie race.
Then, at the appointed time, she arrived at footbridge over Mark Creek. About 3,500 yellow ducks were scheduled to float downstream around noon. She’s from Surrey, B.C. – a long way to drive for a duck race.
“It is exciting,” she said. “Some of them get stuck and go around in circles.
“It is not something you see in Surrey.”
Ms. Darbyshire waited 45 minutes for the ducks, but they never came. Red tape thwarted the town’s 13th annual Canada Day spectacle. Organizers drew names out of a bucket to determine the winners near this year’s unnecessary finish line at Rotary Park.
Kimberley is a small city – 7,425 people live here – in the B.C. Interior. Charity plays a major role in its Canada Day celebrations. Volunteers, selling tickets for the duck race at $5 a pop, raised $17,500 for the food bank this year. Meanwhile, at Over Time Beer Works, the town’s micro-brewery, wannabe chefs squared off in a BBQ competition, smoking 40 racks of ribs, 25 chickens, and some pulled pork. Organizer Al Rice, who arrived at 4:45 a.m. to start setting up, hoped to raise another $1,500 to $2,000 for the food bank and win the competition. He barbecued with apple pellets.
“Everyone is in it for the right reasons, but there’s a little bit of swagger,” he said next to his Whole Hog rig from Louisiana Grills. “Let’s just hope there’s no foul play.”
Kimberley’s Canada Day events reflected its size. In the platzl – Kimberley’s pedestrian-only interpretation of a town square – perhaps 100 tourists and locals milled about, as pop-up vendors peddled paintings, knit shawls, and other goods common in weekend markets targeting tourists. Adults painted kids’ faces; folks played ping pong at the concrete table; some checked out rock climbing joint; others gravitated to sunny patios for cold ones.
Dozens gathered around the platzl’s gazebo to hear members of the nearby Ktunaxa Nation drum and sing traditional songs. A small group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples danced in a circle.
Settlers gravitated to Kimberley in 1891, after galena was discovered at the North Star Mine, according to the city’s history. A year later, four prospectors arrived to find the area staked. They crossed Mark Creek – home to the duck race – and explored further. Their Sullivan Mine was once one of the world’s richest lead-zinc mines, according to the city. The settlers, in 1896, adopted the name Kimberley in hopes of matching the mining riches of the South African town with the same name.
Scores of towns in Canada’s Kootenays – think Fernie, Nelson, Castlegar, Rossland, Golden, and others – have mining roots and many have had to reinvent themselves. Kimberley recognized the resource business can be unreliable transformed itself into a Bavarian theme town in 1973, hoping to attract tourists. That birthed the platzl, still lined by buildings sporting aging Bavarian-themed facades and home to a cuckoo clock. The Sullivan mine closed in 2001. The ski hill and scores of golf courses in the area now draw thousands of tourists.
Kimberley’s new splash park – it opened a week ago – was the busiest attraction in Rotary Park on Canada’s 150th birthday. Kids cooled themselves in the water, adults relaxed at brown picnic tables eating food dished up in small tents, and duck race enthusiasts waited for the draw. Between 250 to 300 gathered at the park, with families clustered on the grass.
Normally, the rubber duckie race would start around noon and the speediest ones would show up at the finish line half an hour later.
All the ducks are assigned a number that matches a $5 ticket. Organizers need a license for the event because the race counts as gambling. They had the paperwork in hand, but then, a few days ago, the creek started running high and fast. That made the race too dangerous, because about six people stand with nets in the creek at the finish line, to collect the ducks. Another six monitor the banks to rescue rogue rubber racers.
“The ducks can handle it, but it is the people at the end we have to worry about,” Don McCormick, Kimberley’s mayor, said.
Given the risk, organizers called it off, opting for a draw instead. That meant applying for a different gambling licence, according to food bank volunteer Barry Cummins. As Canada Day approached, the creek calmed and it was perhaps safe enough for volunteers. But because organizers swapped their race licence for the draw licence, they would be violating regulations if they dropped 3,500 rubber duckies into the creek, he said. They didn’t have enough time to refile for a race permit.
This is only the third year the mountain town has called off the race, Mr. Cummins said.
And that news was slow to reach Ms. Darbyshire, here to visit family for 10 days. “When I got back to my sister’s, I searched ‘Kimberley duck race’ [on Twitter],” the 62-year-old said. A tweet from The Globe and Mail’s reporter in Kimberley to cover the race informed her it was cancelled.
Follow Carrie Tait on Twitter: @CarrieTait
powered by sue.ng a legal search engine