The folks at IMG got the ball rolling this week for Stars On Ice Canada with the news that Canadian champions Joannie Rochette, Jeffrey Buttle, and Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon will all participate in the 13-city tour, which begins March 29 in Halifax.
For Dubreuil and Lauzon, the five-time Canadian ice dance champs, it's their SOI debut.
The 2007 extravaganza almost marks the national tour farewell for Brian Orser, who's immersed himself into coaching big-time at the Toronto Cricket Curling and Skating Club.
Long-time Canadian favourite Kurt Browning (skating's Mr. Entertainment) and Olympic pairs champs Jamie Sale and David Pelletier are also on board again.
The theme this year is Double Exposure: The Many Lives of Figure Skaters. My pal (and aspiring journalist) Jennifer Robinson, who's currently with the tour south of the border, tells me it's definitely worth a look.
(Jen's again penning a journal about the 'behind the scenes' stuff that goes on with SOI. It's on the U.S. tour website, which you'll find under our 'skating links.').
Conspicuous by her absence this year is former world champion ice dancer Shae-Lynn Bourne, who has lent her talents to SOI Canada the past few years as a solo dancer.
Shed no tears for Shae, though. She'll be plenty busy soon enough: She tells me she's signed a two-year contract with Tom Collins' Tour of Champions.
“I wasn't asked (to join SOI),” Bourne said recently in Halifax after she and partner Victor Kraatz were inducted into the Skate Canada Hall of Fame. “So I thought, okay, Champions (tour) ... I'm going to be doing that through the summer.”
Hey, once a champion, always a champion, right?
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