Canada and Scotland have largely ignored Nigeria’s request that the two countries abandon their bids for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in favour of letting Africa become host city for the Games.
Thomas Jones, the chief executive officer of Commonwealth Games Canada said Canada’s not turning back. “At this stage we don’t have any plans to move any direction other than forward”. The Canadian federation will select Canada’s representative on December 15 from the Region of York (near Toronto), Hamilton, Ottawa and Halifax.
Jones said, “we’re well launched into the domestic process. We bid for a particular bunch of reasons. The Games do an amazing number of things, from infrastructure to the economy to national spirit and health”.
A Canadian Commonwealth source told the Globe and Mail that a grassroots movement in the Commonwealth thinks its time to take a major sports event to Africa.
Since 1930 the Games have stayed mainly on a circuit of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Britain, with a few exceptions.
In Glasgow the Evening Times reported that Scotland’s minister of tourism, culture and sport wrote to every local council and cultural group across the country and called them to a forum in which she urged a national push to ensure the Games came to Scotland.
