Following the results of Berne’s 2010 Referendum, Jim Green of the Impact of Olympics on Communities Coalition (IOCC) told the Province British Columbians should also be give a referendum on the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter bid.
“It’s $6.5 billion, and right now people don’t know what’s going on. We want a province-wide referendum.
“If people vote overwhelmingly in favour, it would make the bid much stronger”.
But Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia, said that many of those now calling for a referendum had supported the idea of holding the 2010 Olympics when the NDP was in power.
Furlong said opinion polls show people are already on side. He added, “referendums are a Swiss tradition, not a Canadian tradition. Polls have shown that two out of three British Columbians and four out of five Canadians support the Olympic bid”.
Sam Corea, a spokesman for Vancouver’s bid, told GamesBids.com that Vancouver has “more than 60,000 signatures and many of these people have pledged to be Games volunteers in 2010”.
He added, “polling from the summer indicates four in five Canadians (more than 80 per cent) support the Vancouver 2010 bid”.
Helen Lenskyj, an author of two books on the Olympics, said results of polls or referendums depend on how the question is phrased.
“If you say, ‘Do you support the Olympics?’ it’s a motherhood thing, and most people vote yes. If you ask them, ‘Do you want to spend money on the Olympics instead of other programs?’ most people vote no.”
