As it travels across the province from Dec. 11 to Jan. 4, the highly anticipated torch-bearing run will make pit stops at relay events in 29 Conservative-held ridings, seven NDP-held ridings and three ridings held by the Liberals.

In the GTA, only one Liberal riding – Brampton-Springdale, held by MP Ruby Dhalla – will host a torch celebration, according to plans released by federal Sports Minister Gary Lunn.

The only other Liberal ridings in the province with scheduled relay events are House of Commons Speaker Peter Milliken's riding in Kingston and Anthony Rota's in northern Ontario.

The torch will make a pit stop in only one riding in downtown Toronto – Trinity-Spadina, where the MP is the NDP's Olivia Chow.

As a result of the relay route, the torch will manage to hit nearly three-fifths of the 51 Conservative-held ridings in Ontario.

The relay will also pass through many of the ridings in Ontario of federal Conservative cabinet ministers, including those held by Transport Minister John Baird, Industry Minister Tony Clement, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Minister of State Gordon O'Connor.

It's a pattern that is repeated nationally. Across the country, the torch relay will be celebrated in 91 Conservative-held ridings, 20 Liberal ridings, 17 NDP ridings and 17 Bloc Québécois ridings.

In the 308-seat Commons, the Tories hold 143 seats, the Liberals 77, the Bloc Québécois 47 and the NDP 36. There is one independent MP and there are four vacancies.

VANOC, the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, denies the Conservative government had any input into the torch relay route.

But the Liberals and NDP are up in arms, saying the heavy weighting of celebrations in Conservative ridings couldn't be a coincidence.

"An Olympics is supposed to be a national celebration," said Toronto Liberal MP Ken Dryden. He said he didn't believe the relay route details when he first heard them.

"How could any government be so inappropriate and so grossly unfair?" Dryden said in the Commons.

"I think it's petty, I think it's cheap and it undermines the spirit of the games," said NDP MP Pat Martin.

But the Conservatives said the opposition complaints were off the mark. "This torch relay route was designed 100 per cent by VANOC, not the government," Heritage Minister James Moore told MPs.

Andrea Shaw, VANOC's vice-president of sponsorship and marketing, said in a statement: "Our primary goal was to bring the Olympic Flame to as many Canadians as possible and we are pleased that approximately 90 per cent of the population will be within a one-hour drive of the route.

"The route planning was not based whatsoever on political ridings," Shaw said.