The Toronto 2008 Olympic bid committee held its final Board of Directors meeting Tuesday at a Toronto hotel.
TO-2008 bid president and chief executive officer John Bitove gave the crowd of about 100 a retrospective of the last three months, showing that most of the bid group’s objectives had been accomplished.
Bitove said that the groundwork has been laid for a shot at the 2012 Games and that bid members should stick together.
He said that the goals of TO-Bid, besides winning the Games, were to change the image of Toronto and Canada, to push ahead with building plans and to improve conditions of amateur sport. “So, three out of four ain’t bad” he said.
Bitove said the commitment between the three levels of government, the city’s decision to plow ahead with a waterfront redevelopment plan, a deepening civic pride and international media attention were valuable to the city.
He said bid members backed Mayor Mel Lastman when comments about visiting Kenya made it “very difficult for him to keep a low profile in Moscow. Those of us who know the mayor know he doesn’t mean those comments. We wanted to make sure that he was protected and that nothing else could be used against us”.
