Some 750 people took part in the Courage Polar Bear Dip in Oakville., Ont., just west of Toronto on Wednesday. 

Aiden Peel, who travelled more than 100 kilometres from Innisfil, Ont., to take the plunge said it was his way to get a fresh start in the new year without a hangover.

The Oakville-based polar bear dip has been running for 40 years, and is one of many such events across the country that raise money for charity.

The event attracted people of all ages. Among the participants was eight-year-old Evelyn Gray, who was planning on taking the polar dip with her father.

“I’m very excited because I’ve always wanted to do this,” she said.

World Vision Canada CEO Michael Messenger said the plunge is expected to raise about $100,000, but numbers won’t be finalized for “a couple of days.” He said the funds will be used to provide clean water in Congo and Zambia this year. 

Messenger, who is also an Oakville resident, said he has personally also taken part in the dip for the past 17 years.

“This is an incredibly meaningful event for me,” he said in an interview. “It’s a little bit crazy. (I’m) not a big fan of the cold water, but I am a big fan of the warm hearts of people here in Oakville.”

Across the country in Vancouver, hundreds lined up to take a plunge into the Pacific Ocean at English Bay Beach on Wednesday afternoon. 

Temperatures hovered around 7 C when the city’s official 105th annual polar bear swim kicked off at noon. The event runs for about four hours and includes a more than 90-metre swimming race.

After a 2-4 start, the Blue Bombers finished atop the West Division and earned their spot in the championship game by beating the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the West final.

The Argos weathered quarterback woes to finish second in the East before upsetting the league-leading Montreal Alouettes in the division final.

That win proved costly, though, as quarterback Chad Kelly broke his ankle. That leaves Toronto relying on backup Nick Arbuckle on Sunday.

A look at the 111th Grey Cup by the numbers:

1: Arbuckle makes his first Grey Cup start. The last two QBs to play in the championship for the first time each won (Cody Fajardo with the Montreal Alouettes in 2023, MacLeod Bethel-Thompson with Toronto in 2022).

2: The Argos beat the Bombers twice during regular-season play, but both games were tightly contested. Toronto won 16-14 at BMO Stadium on July 24, then took a 14-11 win in Winnipeg on Oct. 11.

4: Fourth-quarter comebacks have become a regularity at the Grey Cup. Six of the last eight were won by teams trailing in the final frame.

5: The Blue Bombers make their fifth straight Grey Cup appearance and Zach Collaros becomes the first quarterback to start five in a row.

8: This will be the eighth time the two sides have met in the championship game. Toronto won the first seven matchups.

9: Toronto trailed by nine points with 14:38 left in the 2022 Grey Cup in Regina The Argos held the Bombers scoreless across the fourth quarter and rallied for a 24-23 win.

15: The number of Argonauts playing in their first CFL championship game, including star running back Ka’Deem Carey.

17: The number of times Vancouver has hosted the Grey Cup with the last held in 2014.

18: The number of Blue Bombers with Grey Cup experience. Offensive lineman Stanley Bryant makes his seventh appearance.

50,000: Spectators expected at B.C. Place on Sunday. The 41-year-old stadium has a capacity of about 55,000.

The Roughriders dropped a 38-22 decision at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg, bringing a season filled with ups and downs and all sorts of adversity to a disappointing close.

But Mace was able to look at the big picture in a postgame conversation with Luc Mullinder on CKRM Rider Radio, pointing to what the team went through just to get to the West Final as a positive sign.

“There’s no sense in beating a dead horse, we know we didn’t play our game tonight and that’s me, and that’s unfortunate,” Mace said when asked what he said to his players after the game. “ But I just shared how proud I am of these guys. The things we went through, the lot of injuries we went through, the losing streak, for them to continue to fight and love on each other and just believe in everything we tried to instil in our first year, it’s incredible.”

Mace was blunt in his assessment of the game, especially when it came to how the team performed defensively early, with a handful of big plays giving Winnipeg the lead and control of the contest quickly.

“There were a couple times early they jumped on us, we had a couple busts defensively, and one of those touchdowns I had a terrible, terrible call from myself,” Mace said. “It just puts a little bit of distress on us, and it kind of got out of hand fast. We pulled close, but we couldn’t control it and didn’t force any turnovers defensively.

“I thought special teams was unbelievable tonight,” he continued. “Offensively we didn’t get to the sixes until a little bit late, and defensively we didn’t do our job tonight so we didn’t really give ourselves a chance.”

Fact remains, a little over a month ago it seemed as if the Roughriders even getting into the playoffs would be a dicey proposition — but a spectacular late-season turnaround left Mace proud of his crew for what they accomplished.

“All the credit goes to the guys, man,” Mace said. “Being part of something for the first time, a vision of what it was we wanted to make this thing look like, for the guys to buy in all the way, to have their back against the wall multiple times this year and band together, it’s special.

“A lot of teams would fold in that situation, they did not. I’m just so extremely proud, that’s the number one thing I can walk away with, we never turned down.”

With the 2024 season now at an end, the business side of things will soon come into play. The Roughriders would like to keep everything together and take a similar run, something Mace is naturally in favour of.

“That’s the main thing, we felt like we had a lot of right guys in the room,” he said. “We’ll continue to build from the foundation we’ve established, which I think is a really good one. Today, it’s just tough, I just really wanted to see these guys next week.”

Canada’s labour minister, meanwhile, says he spoke with both the employer and representatives of Grain Workers Union Local 333 on Monday, and they have agreed to resume contract negotiations alongside federal mediators.

Steven MacKinnon posted the message on the social media platform X, saying Canadian farmers had a “bumper crop” and they need to get it to market.

Union president Douglas Lea-Smith says the Vancouver Terminal Elevators Association hasn’t “meaningfully engaged” over a dozen days of bargaining ahead of further talks with help from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

The union has said it provided the employer with a “comprehensive package” last Thursday, but the next day, the association indicated it had no counter offer.

A statement issued by the Shipping Federation of Canada says the union and the association concluded conciliation with help from the federal service on Aug. 26, but could not come to an agreement on a new contract.

The affected operations include Viterra’s Cascadia and Pacific Terminals, Richardson International Terminal, Cargill Limited Terminal, G3 Terminal Vancouver and Alliance Grain Terminal, all located in Vancouver and North Vancouver.

Lea-Smith said the major sticking point in the negotiations relates to time in lieu.

“There are some minor monetary issues, but for the most part, it’s largely over earned time-off days, which we call lieu days,” he said.

The lieu days stretch back to binding arbitration in 2002, when the workers moved to an round-the-clock operation, Lea-Smith said.

“Grain workers in 2002, on a pro rata basis, compared to today, earned more money than we do,” he said.

It’s the first time the union local has gone on strike since about 1970, he said.

The narratives flying around are weird. I literally asked myself twice this week, “Am I looking at this week through green-coloured goggles like a watermelon-wearing, Pilsner-slugging, 50yr season ticket holder? Or am I simply seeing the upcoming BC Lions battle differently because of my vantage point? 

Now look, I think Rick Campbell and the players in that locker room are solid, but what is it about the Leos that has all of Saskatchewan’s fans and CFL MEDIA so scared??? #BoogeyMan

Like many of you, I watched the Lions destroy the Hamilton TiCats last week…BUT WHO HASN’T? And by the way, Hamilton made an unbelievable amount of defensive mistakes in the first half of that blowout last week.

I don’t want to take anything away from the Lions. They capitalized on a bad team making crazy mistakes. That’s what good teams do. They execute and play with great effort.

But I’m flabbergasted by some of the questions I’ve been getting this week. 

“Soooo…do you think we can keep it close?” 

Huh? Have we not been watching this defensive unit as of late?

“Luc…do we have a chance AT ALL?”

What? Have you not seen how this team plays in the 2nd half of games?

“I dunno Luc. I don’t feel good about this!”

Wait…THIS IS THE SAME VERNON ADAMS THAT THREW 6 INTs AGAINST A COREY MACE DEFENSE LAST YR, RIGHT??? Does nobody feel a tad comfortable that Mace may have a bit of a clue about how to defend this quarterback?

Like- we do understand that this is the Lions team that lost to the same team the Riders beat last week, right? Other than that, they’ve beaten Calgary- meh, Winnipeg- who looks a step behind, and Edmonton twice- WEELPP #ChrisJonesVoice

This isn’t a bulletin board material moment. Former players in the media shouldn’t be a distraction…I’m simply asking why everyone in Saskatchewan seems to be petrified about this game and why the media seems NOT to want to give the Green and White any type of credit. 

Has Ridernation become so used to losing that we’re not comfortable winning anymore?

WAIT!!! Are we back to the days of 2007-2014, when it was cool for the whole league to hate on Saskatchewan??? That’d be kinda cool tbh! 

Again, I’m not saying the Lions are junk. They are one of the top 3 teams in the CFL right now! But I’ve watched the same games you have. They’re a very disciplined football club that doesn’t make a ton of mistakes and will hurt you if you make mistakes against them. 

What the Lions are not are the New England Patriots in their prime, with Belichek wearing a torn-up hoodie.

The Lions are not a team that should make everyone around here forget about all of the positive things the Riders have put on film as of late. 

The Lions should not make you forget the buy-in created in the Rider locker room. Coach Mace has been Austin-Esque in his approach, and that’s not high praise. It’s how I feel, having been in an Austin locker room and being around a Mace-led club.

Again. I feel like I’m an outlier at the moment. I’m not ego-driven, but I don’t think I’ve made it a habit of giving bad takes when it comes to the on-field performance of the Riders from game to game for the last seven years. This is the first time I’ve questioned whether I’ve been watching the same film everyone else has. These two teams match up really well. This isn’t a David and Goliath moment. 

I guess we’ll find out on Saturday. This has the makings of an absolute classic, but sadly, someone’s going to lose. And when one team does lose…it does not cast them into the “pretender” category. 

The Saskatchewan Roughriders are 4-0, playing some of the best team football we’ve seen in a while. FOUR WINS. ZERO LOSSES. That’s a good thing, guys, and being onboard is okay. You might even have some fun! I can’t imagine how terrible it would be to watch a game hoping to yell, “I TOLD YA SO. WE’RE LOSERS!”

Cheers to the fellas going 1-0 this week!

-95, OUT.