I'm not sure whether he's the star of Marathon Man or Chariots of Fire or maybe even Survivor (even though that isn't a movie yet) - pick your title. All I know is after the shows he put on yesterday, he deserves an award of some kind.

Picture Team Suzuki shuffling off an early morning flight, one that saw the entire crew up at 3:30 a.m. Mountain Time so we could get to Kamloops for the first B.C. stop of the tour. It's an early Sunday morning and everyone is tired and perhaps a trifle grumpy - even I, whose good humour and cheery morning personality is legendary, was not exactly in top form. But we were in our home province and sure enough, hadn't taken five steps into the airport terminal before a smiling businessman came up to David, shook his hand and insisted on having his picture taken with the Doc. It perked us up and it was just a taste of things to come because the welcome he got at Thompson Rivers University's Grand Hall is normally reserved for rock stars. Cheering crowd, thunderous applause and there was the Doc, standing up there and delivering a fabulous, high-energy speech which brought the folks to their feet. He didn't miss the opportunity to put Kamloops Mayor Terry Lake on the spot over a local pesticide control bylaw (Lake was in the front row and was seated almost right next to David during the introduction and seemed to take it quite well, especially when the Doc grinned and said: "Sorry - I couldn't help myself.")

As if that wasn't enough, David did a scrum afterwards with about a half dozen local media, patiently answering questions about everything from mountain pine beetles to how to deal with a climate change denier. He even indulged one print reporter who followed him practically to the bus asking how long he spent in the shower. Me? I was operating on fumes and I could barely keep up with David, who has got to be about the fittest septuagenarian I know.

But it was, of course, worth every minute. The Thompson River's University Student's Union did a fabulous job of staging the event and the local speakers (Matt Greenwood of the Kamloops Chapter of the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association and Anne Neave of Pesticide Free Kamloops) showed that the folks in the Thompson River region are part of the solution.

We barely had time to draw breath before it was off to Kelowna, wending our way down the winding highway, and I thought: "What sadist thought that David Suzuki and his team could possibly make it from Edmonton to Kamloops and then to Kelowna all in the same day?" And then I remembered it was me (did I mentioned I booked him three telephone interviews back-to-back-to-back that afternoon?) but I had little time for self-flagellation because then it was off to the Parkinson Recreation Centre where nearly 500 people had crammed in and (after having done yet another round of media interviews), the Doc absolutely electrified the audience with his talk. He was already being given a standing ovation when Teresa Laturnus, his personal assistant, went up to the stage and whispered something to him. Grinning like the Cheshire Cat, David told the audience: "Al Gore just won the Academy Award for best documentary."

The place exploded into cheers and whoops and whistles and through it all, the Doc stood up there, smiling, delighted for his friend, energized by the crowd and blown away by the feeling that this tour is riding a wave which may finally take us down the path to sustainability.

And after all this, he still had enough strength to watch the rest of the Oscars (he was rooting for Helen Mirren to win best actress and was happy to see Forest Whitaker win best actor) while relaxing on the bus. So it was an amazing day all around. Personally, I am going to sleep where I hope to be at least nominated for best sound effects for my snoring.

--Don Hauka, Communications guru