TIME TO BE HEARD

Today’s the day Calgary’s citizens vote on whether or not to proceed with bidding for the 2026 Winter Olympics,

It’s Olympic vote day, finally.

After months of political discussions about whether Calgary should continue moving toward another shot at hosting the Winter Games, this time in 2026, citizens have a chance to weigh in with Tuesday’s plebiscite.

Adecisive “yes” vote — at least 50 per cent of voters plus one — is a condition of the provincial and federal governments providing the money they’ve committed toward the Calgary bid.

If the result Tuesday is a “no,” the bid is almost certain to meet a swift end. If it’s a “yes,” city council still needs to give a final go-ahead.

It’s still possible they could stop the process if there are changes to the hosting plan or the multi-party agreement with the other orders of government that the city can’t accept.

City returning officer Laura Kennedy warned voters against wearing “yes” or “no” buttons or any promotional Olympic attire like the 1988 Sunice ski jackets to the polls. Because anything considered to be campaign materials can’t be brought inside the polling station.

Advance voting was held Nov. 6 and Nov. 7, and the final turnout was 54,442 votes, including more than 8,500 ballots, according to the City of Calgary.

That compares with nearly 75,000 people who voted in advance polls for the 2017 municipal election.

University of Calgary political science assistant professor Jack Lucas said it’s been decades since Calgary held a plebiscite separately from a general election.

And while the number of advance voters showing up can’t be directly correlated with signs of a high overall turnout, it could be a promising sign about people’s interest in the vote.

“The advance vote numbers suggest that a truly catastrophically bad turnout is unlikely,” Lucas said.

“It could still happen that all the super enthusiastic people went to the advance vote — and I don’t have a ton of data to back this up — but I kind of doubt that.”

Plebiscites held on their own can sometimes see turnout as low as 10 to 20 per cent of eligible voters, but Lucas said that might not be the case for this vote. When Vancouver held its Olympic plebiscite for the 2010 Games, the city saw 46 per cent voter turnout — that was considered a huge success, Lucas said.

“If we were to get turnout rates in the high 30s, I think that would be considered quite good, and if they squeak into the 40s, everybody will consider that a pretty successful outcome as far as turnout goes,” he said.

Results of the plebiscite are expected to be available shortly after polls close Tuesday night, with final numbers and a ward by ward breakdown of voting data released later in the week.

“The advance vote numbers suggest that a truly catastrophically bad turnout is unlikely.” JACK LUCAS UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY