They sweated it out in very different ways. The 150 “No” supporters of the Vancouver 2010 plebiscite were crammed into a small beer and pizza restaurant while the thousands of “Yes” supporters celebrated in their headquarters at Canada Place.
Chris Shaw, spokesman for the No Games 2010 Coalition, called the 36-per-cent vote against the bid “an awesome victory”. He said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) still might not be convinced Vancouver has enough public support.
“We changed a lot of people’s minds and educated a lot of people and that was our goal. They failed to go up in numbers and they failed to hit their threshold. I think the IOC is going to be looking at this in a very serious way”.
The “No” group vowed to keep the fight going to stop the Games from coming to British Columbia.
Shaw said, “we’re not going to stop until the province gets a vote”, referring to a province-wide referendum. “We created a movement and it will go on”.
Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell, who pledged to hold a referendum on the bid during his recent election. Said, “the results are decisive. It’s a powerful “Yes” to the International Olympic Committee that Vancouver wants the Games and that we are ready, and I will convey that to the IOC when they get here”.
Before the results of the vote Campbell said he wasn’t going to lose any sleep if the “Yes’” side lost. He said the idea to hold a referendum was not his alone. According to Campbell it was also the idea of COPE, a coalition of municipal politicians.
In a joint statement Jack Poole, the bid’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and John Furlong, President and Chief Operating Officer of the bid called it “a wonderful moment for our city and our country. We will continue to make the bid process as open and inclusive as it can be. The plebiscite demonstrated that, above all, Vancouver is a city that listens to its people. Every Canadian is a winner tonight”.
They added, “we will continue to convey our city’s compelling technical ability, our range of cultural offerings, our spectacular natural setting, and our commitment o sustainability and to the ideals of Olympism”.
Michael Schuen, spokesman for Salzburg 2010, one of Vancouver’s two rivals for the 2010 Winter Games, said that the result was “what we expected. We have a little more than 64 per cent in our polls”, referring to a poll released recently that showed 75-per-cent support in Salzburg. “Now it is an open race”. It (Vancouver’s result) won’t change how we approach things”.
GamesBids.com will be in South Korea all this week to gauge the reaction of Pyeongchang 2010, the other city bidding for the 2010 Winter Games, to Saturday’s plebiscite results.
