Majority of Canadians backs hosting another Olympics, survey finds

A majority of Canadians support the idea of bringing the Olympics back to Canada, including close to 70 per cent of the population from the Prairies, according to a new survey by Nanos Research.

The Nanos survey, commissioned by CTV News before the start of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, asked 1,000 Canadian adults whether they support, somewhat support, oppose or somewhat oppose efforts to pursue hosting a future Olympic Games in Canada.

The survey question pointed out that hosting the Games can be very expensive but may also draw substantial world attention and tourism.

One-quarter of respondents said they supported the efforts, in addition to 32 per cent who somewhat supported hosting the Olympics in Canada.

Three per cent were unsure, while 22 per cent indicated they outright opposed the idea, along with 17 per cent who were somewhat opposed.

About 68 per cent of survey participants from the Prairies said they were supportive or somewhat supportive of the idea, the highest of any geographic subgroup.

As Calgary continues to consider whether to bid on the 2026 Winter Games, Coun. Jeromy Farkas said it’s not a question of whether the city would do a good job of hosting, but whether it makes financial sense.

“We actually need to go to Calgarians about whether or not we want to host the Olympics,” said Farkas. “What I’m hearing from my constituents is that hosting the Games at this time just doesn’t make sense for our priorities. We’re five years after the disastrous 2013 flood, we’re not a step closer for upstream flood mitigation, we can barely keep our streets clear of snow, so why do we focus on these frivolities rather than the necessities?”

But Coun. Ray Jones said there’s no doubt the Games would provide a jolt to the city’s struggling economy.

“It definitely does that. The last Olympics we had did phenomenal growth for the Stampede that year,” he said. “We broke numerous records that year with tourism. I feel that we would do that again.”

Jones added that hosting the Games in Calgary would be beneficial to Canadian athletes.

“Especially with the way we’re winning medals in this year’s Olympics and Calgary being the training centre for Canada for Winter Olympics, I think it would be a good thing, even to get the new facilities up and running for the new athletes coming up,” Jones said. “We have to replenish those facilities anyway, because they’re 30 years old and they ’re starting to get a little threadbare.”

The survey’s margin of error is plus/minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.