How Harry charmed Toronto

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In what was almost certainly his last full calendar year as a bachelor, Prince Harry certainly made 2017 one to remember, and Canada played a pivotal role in it.

While much has been made of his romance with the former Toronto-based American actress Meghan Markle, with the pair due to be married on May 19, his Royal Highness's visit to the Ontario capital for the Invictus Games put a real sparkle on the third instalment of the event.

The Games were originally conceived by the Prince, a veteran of the British Armed Forces himself, as a Paralympic-style event to bring injured servicemen and women together, uniting them through the power of sport. The inaugural Games took place in London in 2014.

However, while there were fantastic stories of bravery and overcoming adversity in almost every competitor's background, it was the Prince's presence in Toronto over the course of the week-long Games that went a long way to draw attention to them.

Michael Burns, chief executive officer of Invictus Games Toronto 2017, says that while Harry would have been one of the top one or two reasons why people would have tuned in to the events before the Games started, by their conclusion on Sept. 30, a poll revealed that just 11 per cent were tuning in because of him. The No. 1 reason, according to 64 per cent of respondents, were those stories.

"You couldn't ask for a better ambassador or face of these Games and we were able to leverage that celebrity status that he has in order to showcase these remarkable heroes and their families around the world," Burns said.

That the Games took place during Canada's sesquicentennial year was an added bonus, but given the careers of the 550 athletes taking part in the events, other anniversaries also came to mind for Burns.

"The 100th anniversary of Vimy and being able to celebrate the contributions of our now-deceased veterans and what that all meant to a young country 100 years ago is one of the defining moments," he said.

With 75,000 attendees for the 2017 Games, the success on these shores also gave the Prince visual proof that the Games will stand the test of time. The next instalment of the 17-nation event takes place in 12 months time in Sydney, Australia.

"He was so impressed by the reaction of the public, not just the city but across the country, and the way that Canadians came out and supported these Games," Burns said. "We took it to a whole other stratosphere, and the Prince at the end of it said there's no way these Games are going to end any time soon."

During his time in Toronto, the Prince also took a tour of the city's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. That high-profile appearance was seen by some as sending an important message in a year in which he had previously confessed to some of his own mental health problems in dealing with the sudden death of his mother, Princess Diana, 20 years ago.

Eleanor McMahon, Ontario's Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, says she took the time to talk to the Prince about his revealing interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph this year.

"I saluted him for that and thanked him, because any time someone of stature talks publicly about their struggles, I think it's very freeing and is a huge signal to society that it's okay to talk about these things, and we need to talk about them, and if healing is going to happen it should," she says.

After meeting him at medal ceremonies during the Invictus Games, McMahon says she was struck by the way he connected with the competitors and their families in the most genuine way. It was something, she adds, that he had likely seen Diana, Princess of Wales, do in her work with HIV and AIDS sufferers, as well as her efforts to bring attention to the dangers of landmines.

"I think when you're someone of his enormous stature, for him to use the tremendous platform he has as a force for good, is I think channeling if I may say what his mother did and her capacity," McMahon says.

Also while in Toronto, Harry took the time to drop in on the event started by his grandfather, Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh's Awards, which honour 14- to 24-year-olds who take on projects related to personal development and community involvement. With the international gold awards taking place at the Fairmont Royal York hotel during the week of the Invictus Games, the organization put in a request to have him drop in, and the Prince certainly injected some buzz into the event.

Victoria Selano, national director of marketing and program for the awards, says once it was announced that the Prince would be presiding over the ceremony, all the recipients replied to their invitations within an hour.

During the event, Harry took time to talk to each recipient individually during his hour there, hearing tales of winter camping and other such stories.

"He's just a remarkable individual, very down to earth, very charismatic and there was electricity as he walked into the room," Selano says. "He really is the type of individual when he speaks to you, it's like the rest of the room fades away because he really takes that moment to maintain eye contact and just engage in a conversation that makes you feel that he really cares."

And while the Prince and Markle have now settled down in Britain to begin their lives together, the Ontario Minister for Tourism, for one, hopes that Toronto will always be a home away from home for them. "Perhaps they'll continue to visit here, that would be lovely," McMahon says. "We hope that Canada has a special place in their hearts because of the fact that it would seem that their relationship began here. I'm hoping that that has a special resonance for both of them."