Calgarians to vote in Olympic plebiscite November 13
Posted Aug 1, 2018 7:00 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Mark down November 13 in your calendar.
That’s the day Calgarians will be going to the polls for an Olympic plebiscite.
City council decided Tuesday on a date and a question that will allow citizens to have their say on whether the city should host the 2026 Winter Games.
The ballot will read: “Are you or are you against Calgary hosting the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games?”
Citizens will be able to mark an ‘x’ beside either ‘I am for Calgary hosting’, or ‘I am against Calgary hosting.’
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said this is a much more straightforward answer than what Vancouver asked ahead of the 2010 Olympics.
“I actually didn’t like that question very much. It was, ‘do you support Vancouver’s participation in hosting?’ — I don’t know what that means. What does participation in hosting mean? Could be, you know, we have the opening ceremonies and nothing else,” he said.
Nenshi said November was the earliest and latest they could hold the vote.
“Certainly that means there is a tremendous amount of work to do between now and then. There’s a lot of different parties that need to come together so, that when citizens go to the polls, they really are well informed on what we are actually voting on,” he said.
The price tag of the plebiscite — which was a sticking point for the province to come through with funding — is $2-million.
