Lobby group promotes Calgary bid
Calgary’s first official pro-Olympics lobby group has stepped into view just five months ahead of a November plebiscite that could decide the fate of the city’s potential bid for the 2026 Games.
Yes Calgary 2026 premiered a logo Thursday in Olympic colours resembling a check mark, which proponents of the bid hope Calgarians will mark in the Yes column this fall.
Behind the scenes, organizers of the group — many of whom are skilled political strategists connected to Mayor Naheed Nenshi — are anxious to see the Olympic debate move out from under the shadow of city hall, where talk of a bid has languished for more than a year.
The internet domain YesCalgary2026.ca was registered back in May, but the group’s social accounts sputtered to life this week with the slogan: Our Games. Our Time.
“Politicians don’t own this. Hopefully by 2026 most of them are gone and we’ve got fresh blood,” said Emma May, a business owner and sometimes political campaigner who is volunteering for the group. “We need to have the people who are going to be here and on the ground and running the city in 2026 engaged in this conversation.
“This is an opportunity to define ourselves and define how it is we want to present to the world. It just seems like too good of an opportunity to just walk away from.”
The group’s organizers and volunteers gathered recently at a meeting hosted by Stephen Carter, an outspoken political campaigner who helped Nenshi to the mayor’s office in 2010.
Carter isn’t the only Nenshiconnected political organizer involved. The mayor’s former campaign communications director Richard Einarson and campaign manager Zain Velji are part of the group, as is the mayor’s policy adviser in his 2017 campaign for reelection, Jason Ribeiro.
Carter said there is no hierarchy to the Yes Calgary 2026 group, which he describes as “grassroots” and volunteer-driven, with people from across the political spectrum who want to support the bid. The website was donated, Carter said.
“There’s this sense that it needs to be blessed by the powers that be, and we just said, you know what? That will come. There will be hundreds of people who agree with us, so let’s put it up and let people start talking about it,” said Carter. “So that’s what we did.”
He said he’s looking forward to the plebiscite for the chance to see the Olympic discussion move beyond city hall politics, partly because of what was happening to the Yes side on council.
While council’s skeptics on an Olympic bid pushed pro-Games councillors to remain impartial, they continued criticizing the bid themselves, he said.
“The No side stayed No. The Yes side got played at council,” Carter said.
“This is why I’m really, really pleased that it’s not going to be happening at that political space. This is a city discussion (and it) needs to happen at a much broader space.
“And I think that that’s where the provincial and federal governments are going to be looking: do the citizens of Calgary want this?”
Coun. Druh Farrell said she’s pleased to see more Calgarians involved in the Olympic conversation but said she’s worried about a massively out-gunned No side.
“I’m concerned that the Yes side will be able to outspend the No side by manyfold,” Farrell said. “But it’s important that Calgarians make an informed decision — regardless of the conversation that happens out in the public, city council has a responsibility to communicate accurate information.”
Currently, visitors Yes Calgary 2026 website are able sign up to volunteer or donate to the campaign, but May says the group isn’t about money.
“There’s no money. No one’s being paid for anything. Quite frankly, I don’t think we need money,” May said. “(This) is something we can get done and have this conversation and have a really clear understanding of what Calgarians want in our bid without spending a ton of money,” May said.
I think that that’s where the provincial and federal governments are going to be looking: do the citizens of Calgary want this?