Olympics Bid

The costs are underestimated, the benefits exaggerated, the goalposts keep moving every few days, and a lack of transparency means the public is kept in the dark.

While that could describe most Calgary City Council projects, this time we are of course talking about the Olympic bid.

City council promised Calgarians that we would get to see the full Olympic Bid plan 30 days before the public vote, to give us enough time to debate the pros and cons and make an informed decision.

They broke that promise.

Instead, the plans are changed almost every day, to whatever the Bid Committee thinks Calgarians need to hear in order to vote yes, and no-one really knows what they’re voting for or against.

That’s not to say that hosting the Olympics is an inherently bad idea – perhaps if the finances stacked up and we’d had long enough to make sure the plan was solid, we could support the bid.

But this is not '88, when community groups led an organic grassroots effort.

This has been a top-down, politician-led, taxpayer-funded campaign to persuade the public right from the start.

Even the councillor who was in charge of the committee that co-ordinated the bid is now opposed because he thinks Calgarians don’t have the information they need to make an informed decision.

For that reason, we think the Common Sense answer to this Olympic Bid is a firm No.