Should Calgary Bid on the 2026 Olympics

[Parallex]

Just saw this...

Scott Dippel
@CBCScott
39m39 minutes ago
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Demong says his read of today's vote is that 9 council members are opposed to any more Olympic work going ahead. If that happens next week, there will not be a bid for the 2026 Olympics.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Council wouldn't be voting this way if they thought there was public demand. If they thought voting against the Olympics would cost them their jobs, they'd be voting the opposite.

That tells me that they've received much more negative feedback than positive. I'm both surprised and delighted that so many people recognize that the Olympics is a bad idea if we don't get a sweetheart deal (and there's nothing to indicate Nenshi or the IOC would give us favourable terms to host).

I guess there could be a longshot idea that this is all part of a bluff to see if the IOC will come begging, but I doubt it.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Council wouldn't be voting this way if they thought there was public demand. If they thought voting against the Olympics would cost them their jobs, they'd be voting the opposite.

That tells me that they've received much more negative feedback than positive. I'm both surprised and delighted that so many people recognize that the Olympics is a bad idea if we don't get a sweetheart deal (and there's nothing to indicate Nenshi or the IOC would give us favourable terms to host).

I guess there could be a longshot idea that this is all part of a bluff to see if the IOC will come begging, but I doubt it.

It was simple to see when they didn't want to do a plebicite.

[CPK80]

It really shows that the councilors that were pushing for a plebiscite were only doing it to kill the bid... Actually not the public engagement there were talking about.

Chris

[Muta]

Too bad if it doesn't go through; this could have been the catalyst for badly needed development of sports infrastructure around the city, facilities that residents and athletes could be using long into the future.

[4X4]

There's always 2030. And 2034. And so on.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Certainly looks like this is on life support. A pleasantly surprising development. Hopefully we can get that $30 million back.

[Wormius]

Is this vote for No Olympics or No Plebiscite?

[CPK80]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Certainly looks like this is on life support. A pleasantly surprising development. Hopefully we can get that $30 million back.

That is the funny thing about this vote... The City has already spent their $10M if the progress is cancelled the provincial and federal governments get there money back and the work that the City has done becomes nothing.

Chris

[Mccree]

I guess we just cannot have nice things in this city, unless it is crappy art or library. Oh well

[CPK80]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Is this vote for No Olympics or No Plebiscite?

Sounds like no Olympics.

Chris

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Is this vote for No Olympics or No Plebiscite?

The vote on Monday is to determine whether or not Calgary will continue to pursue the bid at all (as I understand it). If the vote to continue passes, I assume they would then need to vote to hold a plebiscite.

[Kjesse]

Its fascinating that council voted 8-6 to spend 30 million of taxpayer dollars on JUST the bid, and then when the other levels of government said, sure, we'll pay 2/3 of that, but have a public vote, council seems to be stepping back.

And in the heat of the moment Nenshi "apologizes" because he says someone else (granted it was Chu) doesn't know what they're doing. All that does is polarize council which is one of the defining features of Nenshi's time in the Mayor's chair.

It appears Notley and Trudeau handled this file well, showing that the will of the Calgary public was needed, not just a small group of politicians' will, to get deep into this and pursue the Olympics. In contrast the city administration looks pretty bad here as do some of the local proponents pushing the idea forward.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by Mccree

I guess we just cannot have nice things in this city, unless it is crappy art or library. Oh well

A library, or supporting a group that condones all sorts of abhorrent, disgusting ####.

Tough call really....

[OMG!WTF!]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Council wouldn't be voting this way if they thought there was public demand. If they thought voting against the Olympics would cost them their jobs, they'd be voting the opposite.

That tells me that they've received much more negative feedback than positive.

I looked on the city of calgary website a few days ago there was a link to a public survey they had done to gauge interest in the bid. The link is gone but there is still information about it in the report Rick Hansen put together.....

http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Recreatio...20redacted.pdf

Page 42 says the response showed 65% of citizens support the bid. It bothers me that the link is no longer there. And if they've done the survey work why are they not standing by it? It seems like they did a half ass job in the first place just to get the answer they wanted.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Kjesse

Its fascinating that council voted 8-6 to spend 30 million of taxpayer dollars on JUST the bid, and then when the other levels of government said, sure, we'll pay 2/3 of that, but have a public vote, council seems to be stepping back.

And in the heat of the moment Nenshi "apologizes" because he says someone else (granted it was Chu) doesn't know what they're doing. All that does is polarize council which is one of the defining features of Nenshi's time in the Mayor's chair.

It appears Notley and Trudeau handled this file well, showing that the will of the Calgary public was needed, not just a small group of politicians' will, to get deep into this and pursue the Olympics. In contrast the city administration looks pretty bad here as do some of the local proponents pushing the idea forward.

Be honest here, Bronconier was no better. I have no memory of previous councils, I'm sure they weren't love-ins either. And it's not like Farkas and Chu make it easy to get along, given their entire ineptitude and inability to understand even remotely how government works.

Plenty of other reasons to criticize him for.

[Northendzone]

First John q. Calagarian took away the big rock in the parking lot and now he wants to,take the olympics as well.....

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Is this vote for No Olympics or No Plebiscite?

If it was a yes vote there would be a Plebiscite to go forward, A no vote means it's the end.

Simple english, Nenshi doesn't want the Olympics

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

If it was a yes vote there would be a Plebiscite to go forward, A no vote means it's the end.

Simple english, Nenshi doesn't want the Olympics

He doesn't want to ask the citizens. He wants it but suspects the plebicite will fail.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by Weitz

He doesn't want to ask the citizens. He wants it but suspects the plebicite will fail.

What's the harm in asking?