{"id":189586,"date":"2018-11-14T04:36:40","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T09:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=189586"},"modified":"2018-11-14T04:36:40","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T09:36:40","slug":"calgarians-vote-no-to-bidding-for-2026-winter-games-in-plebiscite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/11\/14\/calgarians-vote-no-to-bidding-for-2026-winter-games-in-plebiscite\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgarians vote ‘no’ to bidding for 2026 Winter Games in plebiscite"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cToday, I have to say, Calgarians won,\u201d said Coun. Sean Chu, who was against a bid. (Photo<\/a>: @frankyYYC\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CALGARY \u2014 Calgarians have said ‘no’ to bidding for the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.<\/p>\n

In a plebiscite asking citizens if they want to host a Winter Games again after the 1988 Winter Olympics in the city, 56 per cent of those who went to the polls cast a dissenting vote Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believed in what the Olympic Games could do for our community, for our province and for our country,\u201d bid corporation chair Scott Hutcheon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m disappointed in the outcome, but I certainly respect the democratic process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out of 767,734 eligible voters, 304,774 voted and 171,750 said \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, I have to say, Calgarians won,\u201d said Coun. Sean Chu, who was against a bid.<\/p>\n

The plebiscite’s result is non-binding on city council, which has the final say on whether Calgary proceeds with a bid.<\/p>\n

The results won’t be declared official until Friday. Council is expected to address the results Monday.<\/p>\n

While a firm ‘no’ vote Tuesday was definitive in terms of what action a nervous council will take, a ‘yes’ vote would have been subject to the decision of a group of people divided on 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s a very strong message,\u201d said Daniel Gauld of the No Calgary Olympics organization. \u201cI think city council is going to have to listen to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe provincial and federal funding will not be forthcoming with this decision today. I think it would be political suicide if they didn’t shut down this bid, so I expect we’ll be seeing that, hopefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you never know. These people on the yes side, the boosters, are very motivated and they have a lot to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

The venues from the 1988 games formed the foundation of a 2026 bid, for which Calgarians were asked to state their appetite.<\/p>\n

Bid supporters and bid corporation Calgary 2026 people gathered at restaurant near the Saddledome to await the results Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Several athletes there were devastated when the result was read out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel really heartbroken and disappointed,\u201d said Helen Upperton, a silver medallist in bobsled. \u201cI have a daughter who would be eight in 2026. I did this for her. My question to Calgary is now what? What is the big dream, what is the big idea?\u201d<\/p>\n

A bid was nearly scuttled before the plebiscite.<\/p>\n

Ten votes out of 15 on council were required Oct. 31 for a motion to pass on abandoning the plebiscite. Eight voted in favour of that motion which would have generated a cascade of other motions shutting down the bid.<\/p>\n

Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi voted for continuing with a bid, saying the proposed host draft plan and budget was a good deal for the city.<\/p>\n

The Alberta government made its funding of a bid conditional on a plebiscite and provided $2 million to pay for it.<\/p>\n

Calgary 2026 was led by Mary Moran, who came from Calgary Economic Development, and Hutcheson, a commercial real estate and former national-team skier.<\/p>\n

The bid corporation’s mandate was \u201cto promote a responsible bid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calgary 2026 was hampered by the tardiness of what the cost-sharing agreement would be between the federal and provincial governments and the city.<\/p>\n

An agreement that was supposed to be ready for public consumption mid-August wasn’t clear until Oct. 30.<\/p>\n

In the estimated $5.1 billion price tag to host the games, the public investment ask was $2.875 billion and down from an initial $3 billion.<\/p>\n

The province committed $700 million, while the Canadian government said it would provide $1.45 billion.<\/p>\n

The city of Calgary was asked for $390 million, and was credited with the $150 million already committed to improving an area that would be a games hub.<\/p>\n

Games revenues \u2014 tickets, merchandising, television rights, corporate sponsorships \u2014 would cover the remaining costs.<\/p>\n

While no order of government offered to be a guarantor against debut, Calgary 2026 built $1.1 billion in contingency funds into its budget to mitigate financial risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think building a dream and articulating that with our social media today and a populist movement makes it more challenging,\u201d Hutcheson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the right dream and with the right city and with the right program, the Olympics should bring lasting memories to a community and we weren’t able to do it this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The International Olympic Committee invited Calgary, Stockholm and a joint Italian bid from Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo to be candidate cities for 2026.<\/p>\n

The IOC will accept bids in early January. The election of the host city is in Lausanne, Switzerland, in June.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Lauren Krugel contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CALGARY \u2014 Calgarians have said ‘no’ to bidding for the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. In a plebiscite asking …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":189594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-donna-spencer","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}