One last, slim chance for Games to escape the axe

What an Olympian fiasco. It almost makes the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion look like a success.

After many months and many more dollars, with a plebiscite two weeks away, city council’s Olympic committee called Tuesday for council to cancel both the bid and the vote.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi wasn’t kidding when he wrote that letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last Friday, threatening cancellation if Ottawa didn’t bend on funding.

There’s still a slight chance that council will reject the motion to cancel. That would allow the whole business to stagger on life support to the Nov. 13 plebiscite.

The cancellation needs 10 votes of 15 to pass full council Wednesday. Late Tuesday, Ottawa and the provincial government did reach a new funding agreement that could still save a potential bid. Before that announcement, Calgary 2026 said: “We remain confident an agreement can be reached.”

Of course, the conspiracy theorists on the No side think cancellation of the bid is actually a ploy to advance the bid.

Among the victims of this mess are the shrinking number of people who still believe you can disagree on an issue without slandering the other side as dishonest and corrupt.

As a columnist who’s been friendly to the bid, I was accused Monday of standing to reap personal benefits if Calgary wins the Games.

That’s right. I’ll captain the men’s hockey team.

Advocates on the Yes side — and there are many of those, too — were avidly urging councillors to stay onside and work for a last-minute solution.

So, you never know until the spike is actually driven home by a final cancellation vote.

But it’s hard to imagine any salvation past the plebiscite, even if Trudeau rides to town in a chuckwagon loaded with gold bars.

This is now about far more than whether there’s enough government cash to run the Games without bankrupting the city.

Coun. Evan Woolley, chair of council’s Olympic committee, said that for a project like this to work there must be four key assets, apart from the monetary.

He listed public will, respect, trust and clear communication.

He might also have mentioned confidence and optimism.

None of those old-time Calgary qualities exist in abundance today. The Olympic drive was supposed to revive them; instead, it often made people terrified for the future.

Thousands of tweets and comments have reflected this. Here’s an anonymous one that gets pretty close to the mood of the many deeply worried people on the No side.

“Not sure what Council expected when they punished Calgarians with increased taxes while they lost their jobs, while interest rates increased and cost of living increased, while carbon taxes were implemented.

“And now they want MORE? For a clearly uneconomic venture? I’m shocked.”

Here’s an opposing view on Twitter, although equally bleak, from the estimable Peter Arato:

“The positive intent was to get external funding to repair aging infrastructure and kick-start the economy.

“Use money that had to be spent on maintenance and supercharge. The funding commitments did not pan out. Too bad. Calgary is dying.”

Another quality Woolley might have noted is leadership. To paddle this project through the rapids of modern angst, there had to be an outstanding leader commanding almost universal respect.

Nenshi might have managed that in his euphoric first term. Not in his third, while the city still has an unemployment rate of 8.2 per cent.

Premier Rachel Notley never put herself solidly behind the Games; not once did she trumpet the project with enthusiasm as a benefit both for Calgary and the whole province.

Trudeau was curiously distant, despite his personal friendship with Nenshi. Maybe he figured that $4.5 billion for a (stalled) pipeline was quite enough for Alberta.

The pipeline experience could even be partly responsible for the deeply hostile reaction to the

Not sure what Council expected when they punished Calgarians with increased taxes while they lost their jobs, while interest rates increased and cost of living increased.

Olympic bid from so many Calgarians.

Apart from landing an economic body slam on the city, it taught us that politicians may say they’ll work things out, that they’re collaborating, that the money is being well spent, that common sense will prevail in the end — and then the whole thing will collapse on a legal technicality or a political whim.

Why in 2018 should Calgarians believe the Olympics would work, when Canada itself so often doesn’t?

Having said all that, I still find myself hoping there’s a sensible, fiscally responsible way to make the Games happen. I believe they would be a boon to this great but shaken city.

Yes, optimism is out of style, but I can’t help it, sorry.