Gold Medal rower Marnie McBean and fellow bid team member field hockey player Sandra Levy, celebrated Canada day by cutting a cake in the shape of the Canadian Flag at Canada House in London before a cheering crowd of about 250 people, and entertaining hundreds of well-wishers at London’s only Canadian pub.
The Olympic element of the parties was low-key, as bid cities try to abide by IOC bidding rules that prohibit public campaigning in the last two weeks of the race for the 2008 Summer Games.
Although she agreed Beijing is the favourite to win the 2008 Games, McBean insists Toronto can close the gap between now and the IOC’s July 13 vote in Moscow.
McBean said, “I really feel that since the IOC’s technical visit and the release of the evaluation commission report, that we’re gaining a lot of support. If you’re at the race track, you pick the horse that’s gaining momentum, and I think that’s us”.
McBean said much will depend now on the short presentations to be made to the IOC members just before they vote.
She said, “until people actually vote, minds can be changed, people can be saying one thing and intending on doing another…my gut feeling is, end of the day, we’re going to pull it out” she said.
Meanwhile, on the home front, the municipal, provincial and federal governments are moving to bolster the ambitious $5.2 billion plan to revitalize Toronto’s waterfront and will announce some time this week that Bay Street financier Robert Fung is the chairman of the board of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp.
The announcement will boost Toronto’s Olympic vision of a spectacular Olympic village, stadium and park on the derelict port lands on the edge of Toronto’s downtown.
