The Order of Canada

The Order of Canada is an honour for merit that is the highest order administered by the Governor General-in-Council in the Canadian system of honours, on behalf of the Queen of Canada. The three-tiered order was established as a fellowship that recognizes the achievement of outstanding merit or distinguished service by Canadians, through life-long contributions in every field of endeavour, and who made a major difference to Canada, as well as the efforts made by non-Canadians who have made the world better by their actions. (wikipedia)

Friday was the 18th Order of Canada ceremony for Governor General Michaelle Jean and also likely her last, given she's leaving the post at the end of this month.

Canadian hockey great Mario Lemieux was invested as an Officer in the Order of Canada Friday, along with Burton Cummings of Guess Who fame, former Manitoba Premier Gary Filmon, former NDP leader Alexa McDonough, movie mogul Ivan Reitman, former Prime Minister Kim Campbell, and singer Ben Heppner.

This was my second time meeting Mario Lemieux.

FLASHBACK

My first meeting with Super Mario was in Toronto at the Sport Card Expo in November. This was one of the few autograph signings that I actually paid for. Craig, who happens to be a huge Penguins fan, and I headed down for the signing.

We both bought 16x20s of Mario and Patrick Roy with hopes of getting Patrick to sign the photo as well.

We were in line for Mario and all I really wanted was a photo with him, more than the autograph. I ran over the scenerio with Craig. He would go first, I would take his picture, and then I would hand him the camera and he could take my photo with Mario. I told him that I would talk to Mario, shake his hand and then head off. Craig told me not to worry, that he would take seven photos.

So, we headed up, Craig handed Mario his photo, and I took his picture.

I then handed Craig my the camera. I handed Mario my photo, told him (in French) that I wanted to thank him for everything he has done for Team Canada. He told me that it was his pleasure. I shook his hand and, as I was about to walk away, Craig told me that I needed to lean into him. Needless to say, I had to keep the line moving and Craig didn't take a single picture.

This is what I ended up with.

Needless to say, I was pretty upset. The autograph did look nice though.

BACK TO THE PRESENT

My meeting with Mario this time was a little less eventful. He got off a bus with a bunch of other people, and I asked him to sign my photo. I got a bit of a scribble that looked like ML and he was signing as he was walking.

Soon after Mario walked into the hotel, Burton Cummings exited the hotel. Steve approached him with some LPs and Mr. Cummings was pretty impressed with them. He told us he had to do them quickly because he had a dinner to go to. Fortunately, quick for him meant not being able to stand around and talk for a half an hour. He signed all our things with a great autograph and let me grab a photo with him.

A couple of minutes after, Mario walked out of the hotel with his wife and headed towards a cab. As he opened the door, I yelled his name and when he turned I asked him if I could grab a photo. He told me sure.

I thanked him for the photo and congratulated him. He told me you're welcome, and thank you. Even though I got an autograph that wasn't nearly as nice as my first Mario autograph, I was happy to finally get a good picture with Super Mario.

UFC 114: Saturday

Saturday was a little different than Friday for us. There wasn't much research that we could do for that day so it seemed like there would be a bit more running around that day.

Me met up with John again in the morning. He joined us in line and we discussed our plan of action for the day. John said that he only really needed Machida that day and that was basically it for him. He promised his wife that he would go for lunch with her that day. Understandable.

When the gates opened, we parted ways with John and headed directly to Tito Ortiz's booth. He wasn't scheduled to sign until noon and it was only ten am. I waited in line to start while Jordan went and grabbed an autograph from Forrest Griffin. When he came back, he waited in line and I left to go and get in line for UFC legend and hall of famer Ken Shamrock. I had no idea that all of these vets would be there. It was really an experience getting to meet all of the guys that paved the way for MMA.

Ken was great to meet. He was really friendly and signed a Muay Thai bag for me and signed Jordan's program for me as he was still in line for Tito.

I then went back to wait with Jordan. As we got closer to noon, we noticed that Matt Hughes had stopped in the booth right next to us. He wasn't doing a formal signing, but was headed to his induction ceremony and had wondered by. I couldn't get my photo out in time for him to sign it. He was gone fast.

Finally Tito arrived and thanked everyone for waiting in line for him. By now his line was huge again. Was I ever glad that we were second in line. We went up and I asked him if he could sign a couple of photos for me. He said of course.

I asked him if he thought that Ken would sign my photo of Tito kneeing him in the head as well and he laughed about it. I think he realized after that Ken was at the expo also and clearly showed that there is still some hate that exists between the two.

He looked at my second photo and commented on how swollen his face looks. He had a pretty good shiner in the photo so we asked him about it. He said that he had broken his orbital bone about a week before the fight. So when asked why he decided it was still a good idea to fight, he responded, "I had to feed my family". How crazy is that. I also asked him how his injury was doing. Tito was forced to pull out of his fight with Chuck Liddell because he needed neck surgery. He said that it felt so much better. He didn't have numbness in his arms anymore and he didn't have pain when he slept. I can't wait to see him back in the ring.

After we left Tito, we saw a short line for Stephan Bonnar. While we were in line, I remember that he used was from Chicago. It was the night of game one of the Stanley cup finals between Chicago and my Philadelphia Flyers. Needless to say, we had a good chat about the series as I was wearing my Flyers shirt.

We then grabbed a photo with Jeff "the snowman" Monson. Another oldie from MMA.

We decided we should meet Guy Mezger also, so as we started to head to his booth, we saw Jay Hieron with nobody in line. We grabbed a quick photo with him. Jordan asked him if he was going to get the other sleeve done. He said that he had other stuff he needed to do first.

Guy Mezger was another legend that used to train in the Lion's Den with Ken Shamrock. It was after Tito Ortiz beat Guy Mezger that he put on a shirt the read "Guy Mezger is my bitch". Ken Shamrock was furious thus starting the hatred between Ken and Tito.

It is always nice to meet the old guys. There were a lot of people at the expo that had no idea who these older guys are. It is only the hardcores that really knew. I guarantee it.

We then went and got in line for Shane Carwin. His lines tended to be pretty big, but we were in line early for him. I told Jordan I would be right back and went and got in line a the Spike booth just as Antonio Nogueira and Stephan Bonnar arrived. When I got up there Bonnar immediately remembered me and said "You Again". I grabbed a photo with both guys and then asked "Minotauro" if he could sign my photo. I asked him how come he wasn't at his brother's workout on Thursday when all of the other teammates were there. He said that he was moving and wasn't in town yet. He appologized to me for not being there. I told him he had nothing to appologize for. I then headed back to meet up with Jordan.

Its amazing how last year nobody knew who Shane Carwin was and he had short lines. Everyone knows him now and his lines were big. I guess when you become champion people know your name. I can't wait for his brawl with Brock.

After meeting Shane, we went back to our hotel to drop off our things as it was getting close to fight time. After the fights, I was walking out of the arena and was able to grab a quick photo with Vitor Belfort as he was walking directly in front of me.

All in all, a really good weekend for meeting people. I got a ton of things signed and a lot of pictures. Next up, Boston!

UFC 114: Thursday

So much happened at UFC 114 and the fan expo that I decided to make it into three parts. I will try and give a day by day account of the things that happened and the people that I met while in Vegas.

This was my second trip to Vegas, with the first time being last July for the historic UFC 100 and first ever UFC fan expo. On thursday morning, the UFC was holding open workouts for some of the fighters that were going to be fighting on the weekend. Jordan and I decided this could be a good chance to try and meet some of the fighters that wouldn't be at the fan expo. We got to the open workouts at around 10:45 am to wait in line as the open workouts were to begin at 11:30am. When we arrived I was surprised to see only a few people in line ahead of me. I guess the workouts weren't promoted very well.

Rampage was scheduled to be the first fighter training followed by his Wolfslair teammate, and my favourite fighter, Michael "the count" Bisping. I was glad to see these two fight, however I was a bit disappointed that this might be my only chance to meet the two all weekend as they wouldn't be at the fan expo.

Slowly the time started passing and Rampage still hadn't shown up. Finally around noon he showed up with Bisping. There was only around 100 people waiting to watch. I couldn't believe it. Both fighters took turns punching bags and practicing kicks. I was really impressed with Rampage's power and with how well rounded Bisping looked. After the two were done working out, Rampage came around and high-fived everyone standing at the barriers. Now, I had briefly met Rampage at the fan expo last year, and it was my belief that he was a complete jerk. He might have been having a bad day, but I know that he doesn't like all the attention he gets as a fighter.

I told Jordan that we could probably give up our spot at the barrier and head outside to try and get and autograph and a picture. We headed outside the hall and I was able to snag an autograph of a belt-shot, and a good photo with.

Rampage seemed like he wanted to meet fans, but also that he wanted to get out of there. He would take pictures with people and slowly walk towards the stairs to leave. When I went to put my arm on his shoulder to grab a photo he said "whoa, we ain't prom dates". It was histarical.

We then headed back inside and saw Bisping signing autographs and taking pictures with people. The best line I heard jokingly from him was something along the lines of "there is no way that all of you are fans of mine because I never hear any cheers when I fight". Again I was able to snag a picture and autograph from him. He loved the picture I had.

Because of the delay in training, we had missed a chance to meet Dan Miller. I was kinda bummed because I had never met him, but then again, it was Dan Miller. He isn't really a huge name.

We went back into the event and were able to watch Rashad Evans train for a bit. He was practicing his wrestling with Strikeforce light-heavyweight champ, "King" Mo Lawal. When people started asked King Mo for a picture after he was done training, he seemed surprised and responded "I'm not in the UFC you know". He was a cool guy.

We were then able to grab a photo with Rashad. He spent a long time meeting with fans and taking pictures and signing autographs for them. He stood around for almost an hour or so after his training was done.

Minotauro Rogerio Nogueira was scheduled to train soon. This is where the star power showed up. His Black House teammates showed up to watch him train and the names were big. Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, Jose Aldo, and Junior Dos Santos were all there to support Little Nog. Through some work, I was able to grab an autograph from Anderson Silva before he entered the training area. He signed my photo and I said "thank you so much". He responded "you're welcome" with no accent at all like he was perfectly fluent in english. It really surprised me.
Jose Aldo was a great guy and was happy to sign and take photos.

Machida was being rushed by his managers, so I wasn't able to meet him before. After the training had started, I got a photo with Efrain Escudero, winner of season 8 of the Ultimate Fighter, who was just finishing up his workout.

After Little Nog was done training, members of Team Black House started to leave. I was able to grab a photo with Lyoto Machida and a quick autograph that I gave away.

I then grabbed a photo and autograph from Junior Dos Santos.

Finally, Little Nog came out and I grabbed a photo and autograph from him.

I thought that was all, but Anderson Silva was still inside making the rounds talking with everyone similar to the way Rashad Evans had done. I guess that when your fights are starting to get booed you need to do some PR work. I grabbed a photo with him.

Along the course of the day a few fighters had walked by that I grabbed quick photos from. Todd Duffee came by. Too bad he got knocked out in one of the greatest comebacks I have ever seen.

Melvin Guillard, a promising lightweight who was also fighting stopped by the workouts. He will have a tough fight next as he called out Jeremy Stephens after winning his fight.

Ryan Bader and a few of the other Arizona boys came by as well. He was a cool guy.

We also saw Clay Guida walking in the hall on his way to check in. He was in a bit of a rush but I grabbed an autograph from him and Jordan was able to snag a picture.

Finally we saw former featherweight champion Urijah Faber. He is always a great guy to talk to.

Jordan and I then headed to a signing that was being held at the Las Vegas Fight Shop in the Luxor. The Luxor was attached to the hotel we were staying at so it only made sense to hit up the signing on the way back to the hotel.

Walking around the Luxor while we were waiting in line were Jon "Bones" Jones, an up and coming fighter who might one day be champion, and Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields.

At the fight shop was Josh Koscheck. I can honestly say that I am not a fan of his. I guess he had another place to be as he was hurrying through signing posters so that he could leave early. I was lucky to grab a photo and autograph from him.

Also at the signing was Cain Velasquez who I had met a few times before. I didn't have anything for him to sign. Lastly was Ultimate Fighter 11's Jamie Yager. This guy looks tough.... right up until the first episode after we got back when he quit his fight. He will be back in the UFC though. Plus he looks like Sideshow Bob.
That ended a Thursday of meeting fighters. I got around 17 photos signed that day and the expo was still to come. Stay tuned for new blogs about the Friday and Saturday of the trip.