Jack Poole, CEO of Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympic bid, said that even if Vancouver residents vote against hosting the Games, the city has signed an “actionable, legal, binding agreement” to support the bid. “In theory we don’t have to go back to any government or anything. Money has been approved”.
COPE city councillor Jim Green said Poole can ignore public opinion but he doubted if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would when it votes in July on which city will be awarded the Games, reports The Province.
He said, “can you imagine the International Olympic Committee would award an Olympics to a city where the people have said they don’t want it and the council is standing beside that. It’s unimaginable a city would be forced to hold an Olympics”.
He added, “I wonder if they think they’ve already lost this bid and they’re trying to make it look like it’s someone else’s fault”.
Poole said plebiscites traditionally have low turnouts and “tend to be hijacked by other issues. It probably wouldn’t be a true expression of public opinion”.
Green said Poole’s statements hurt his own cause. “The first thing people are saying is ‘what is this guy afraid of?’ I feel by doing this he’s really fanning the flames for a no vote”.
Poole said the bid corporation has agreements in place with all levels of government and those agreements are in the Olympic bid book, which is being printed and is to be presented to the IOC on Jan. 10.
He said the IOC will want to make sure the guarantees could not be impacted by future elections.
Chris Shaw, spokesman for the No Games 2010 Coalition, called Poole’s comments shocking.
“It’s kind of a scary thing for an unelected person like Jack Poole to be saying he would thumb his nose at the public. I think the bid corporation has had a number of things happen to them in the last few weeks and they are panicking”.
Shaw said that Poole is wrong to say the city is legally bound to support the bid. “Remember, Denver had a referendum after they were awarded the (1976 Winter Olympic) Games and chose to opt out”.
