By Jonathan Hayward, The Canadian Press

KUGLUKTUK, Nunavut - As Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall drew crowds and cheers in Ontario, hundreds of residents in this barren Arctic community gave the royal treatment to the arrival of the Olympic flame and its entourage.

Most members of this village on the Arctic Ocean turned out to greet the flame, warmly saying to everyone who arrived "Welcome to Kugluktuk" before the torch was loaded onto a dogsled and raced into town.

Colin Adjun, along with his two sons, was at the helm of that dog team and he described the experience as unforgettable.

"It was really unique to see people, happy, yelling and waving," he said of the excitement surrounding the flame.

"It's something people have never seen in town."

Adjun, 65, started his first dog team when he was 14. But the seasoned veteran admitted even he was nervous when he first grabbed hold of the torch.

"I probably had a couple hours of sleep last night," he said, chuckling.

On the two-kilometre route from the airstrip, the flame passed small groups of people standing out in the freezing cold wearing fur-lined parkas, cheering and waving homemade signs and Canadian flags.

Hundreds of people followed behind and the relay took the flame into the community's recreation centre.

There, a feast of caribou and homemade soup was served and community members performed a drum dance.

Later in the day, the torch made its way to Yellowknife where it was run past the Northwest Territories legislature.

Megan Shaben was one of the Yellowknife torchbearers and, like many before her, she had only glowing praise for the experience.

"It's hard to explain, even, there's so many emotions going on and everyone's cheering and cameras are all over the place," she said.

"I'm still kind of in shock that I've been chosen to do this."

Shaben said the experience was like no other she's ever had.

"Nothing that I've ever done has compared to this. Nothing will ever beat this, I don't think," she said.

As his daughter ran her leg of the relay, dad Omar Shaben jogged close behind.

Asked after what he felt watching his daughter carry the flame, the elder Shaben said he was "very proud and happy as heck."

The warmth up north wasn't shared thousands of kilometres south in Ottawa, where Liberals once again accused the Conservative government of attempting to manipulate the Olympics into a public relations campaign for the Tory minority government.

The Liberals say the torch relay is stopping in a disproportionate number of Conservative ridings - 62 per cent, compared to 12 per cent for Liberal ridings, 13 per cent for NDP ridings and 10 per cent for Bloc Quebecois ridings.

"The Olympic Torch is like the Stanley Cup," Joyce Murray, Liberal critic for the Vancouver Olympics, said in a news release.

"The torch relay is a journey across Canada to engage all Canadians coast-to-coast-to-coast, regardless of the party stripe of the riding they live in."

The Liberals had similar complaints when the official Olympic uniforms were unveiled to show a logo that included a maple leaf in the centre of a stylized C. The Liberals complained it looked too much like the Conservative logo.

Officials with the Olympic organizing committee said then that the government had nothing to do with the symbol.

On Thursday, a Vancouver Olympic organizing committee spokeswoman said the primary goal was to bring the Olympic flame to as many Canadians as possible.

"The route planning was not based whatsoever on political ridings," said Andrea Shaw, vice-president of sponsorship sales and marketing for the Games.

"Communities were selected because of their population and geographic location in designing the route."

Shaw said while VANOC welcomes advice and input from the federal government, as it does with any Games partner, programming decisions remain up to the organizing committee.

The torch relay is sponsored by RBC and Coke. The federal government has contributed $10 million for the organization of the Olympic relay and another $12.5 million to help support local celebrations.