GregWTravels
Active Member
I dunno. The midway of the Ex made a damn-fine backdrop for Bono and the boys when U2 played there with the ZOO TV tour.
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Toronto 2020 Olympic Bid
- Thread starter FutureMayor
- Start date
I dunno. The midway of the Ex made a damn-fine backdrop for Bono and the boys when U2 played there with the ZOO TV tour.
rbt
Senior Member
If Chicago loses in 2016, why wouldn't Chicago be an expected contender for a games in 2020?
b13
New Member
scarberiankhatru
Senior Member
And should Chicago lose 2016, another American city might get endorsed for or actually win the 2018/2022 games, which would kill a potential Chicago 2020 bid.
toforumer
Active Member
So what's the latest news? Is the city going to bid for a Pan Am Games now that the 2007 editions concluded yesterday.
dowlingm
Senior Member
Commonwealth Games might be a better bet - more people care about those especially with the sportsmad Aussies. Hamilton and Halifax bidding was a farce - Melbourne just hosted the Games in Oz and Manchester UK before that I think so it takes a decent size city.
gibsonm
Active Member
Olympic Bid
For those, like myself, who are more interested in the infrastructure legacy, why doesn't Toronto bid for another World's Fair, one of the grand expositions on the scale of Expo 67? If the city actually follows through on the bid this time, it has a better chance of winning that than an Olympic bid anytime soon. Sadly, we were poised to win the 2015 bid by a large margin until the three levels of government sold TO down the river.
For those, like myself, who are more interested in the infrastructure legacy, why doesn't Toronto bid for another World's Fair, one of the grand expositions on the scale of Expo 67? If the city actually follows through on the bid this time, it has a better chance of winning that than an Olympic bid anytime soon. Sadly, we were poised to win the 2015 bid by a large margin until the three levels of government sold TO down the river.
Jdot
Active Member
That's just it. Toronto wanted it, Ontario and Canada (mostly Canada) were wishy-washy. World's Fair's are dependant upon the host nation supporting it and putting forward the bid. Harper & Co. didnt care to promote Toronto.
toforumer
Active Member
Harper is more concerned about the West coast priorities and Vancouver since they are hosting the Winter Olympics.
Has anyone else seen on the news how bad Vancouver has gotten lately? The city is full of trash everywhere because all the public workers are on some strike. It was beyond disgusting, garbage was littered everywhere covering streets and sidewalks, public parks were full of shit, garbage bags ripped open all over the place and rats and roaches running rampant all over the place. People were dumping their garbage into these parks and also into the ocean.
That's pretty embarrassing for a future Olympic host city.
Vancouver should have never won the Winter Olympics. It's not even a Winter city. Picture the winter games with lots of forecast skies and rain . Even when it snows in the city, it'll melt right away and then rain probably again. Quebec City should have been the next Canadian city to host the Winter Olympics.
adma
Superstar
Though maybe Vancouver was a high-profile catchall proxy for Whistler or something...
Pep'rJack
Active Member
You've been given a wildly exaggerated impression of the situation. I'm sure some people are dumping in the water and whatnot, but with the exception of a few stinky alleys (not at all unusual in downtown Van), one would be quite hard-pressed to detect evidence of a garbage strike at all. How this is possible, I honestly don't understand - why the place is not knee-deep in rubbish by this point baffles me completely, but it isn't. Some have suggested it's because most of the high-rise trash collection is private, but that doesn't explain why, say, Robson isn't a disaster. I can't explain it, but I can report that there seems to be very little extra trash about.
Tewder
Senior Member
That's not completely fair. Harper had just been elected at the time. The Harper conservatives have since spent money in Toronto, which is amazing considering they must know they have no hope in hell of votes here.
Jdot
Active Member
Vancouver's bid goes back to the days of Chretien for initial support. A federal Liberal government, imo, is more supportive of a sporting bid no matter where in the country it is. After supporting Toronto, they had to support Vancouver.
There is nothing wrong with Vancouver hosting a winter olympics. The snow events will be held in Whistler while the ice events (indoors) will be held in Vancouver. The weather outside doesnt really matter in Vancity. All host cities see a secondary city hosting the mountain snow events. I think Vancouvers draw was that it is very unique to winter host cities - first time a host city is located on the water (not just a river), and the largest city to host the winter games.
There is nothing wrong with Vancouver hosting a winter olympics. The snow events will be held in Whistler while the ice events (indoors) will be held in Vancouver. The weather outside doesnt really matter in Vancity. All host cities see a secondary city hosting the mountain snow events. I think Vancouvers draw was that it is very unique to winter host cities - first time a host city is located on the water (not just a river), and the largest city to host the winter games.
gibsonm
Active Member
More on Harper and Toronto
Regarding Harper's unwillingness to back the World's Fair and things Torontonian, I think there's something to this. When Harper pledged to reduce the GST, he did so knowing full well that doing so would mean less money coming out of wealthier provinces like Alberta to be redistributed throughout the rest of the country. He said that if individual provinces wanted to up their provincial sales taxes in place of the GST, they were free to do so. But of course it's unpopular to raise taxes.
Now, in addition to having no provincial sales tax, Alberta will, if Harper's re-elected, have a smaller GST to pay (5%) -- great way to reduce the amount of money the federal government takes out of Alberta. The problem is, parts of the country, Toronto included, could really use that tax revenue. It frankly disgusts me that a province like Alberta, making unprecedented riches out of its energy-sucking, emissions-producing tar sands projects, generally feels little responsibility toward the rest of the country. In fact there is a strain of separatism in the province, so that even more oil wealth can be hoarded. I can't help but suspect that Mr. "Build a firewall around Alberta" Harper supports this individualistic program.
Harper has to get out of the mentality of making announcements to win votes and actually make investments that will generate wealth for the entire country. Toronto is a major economic engine that needs major investments to modernize its infrastructure, especially in the area of transit. The World's Fair would have given Toronto an impetus to take a major leap forward. Now, we don't even have half measures. What kind of a prime minister wouldn't support a great opportunity for the country's largest city?
Regarding Harper's unwillingness to back the World's Fair and things Torontonian, I think there's something to this. When Harper pledged to reduce the GST, he did so knowing full well that doing so would mean less money coming out of wealthier provinces like Alberta to be redistributed throughout the rest of the country. He said that if individual provinces wanted to up their provincial sales taxes in place of the GST, they were free to do so. But of course it's unpopular to raise taxes.
Now, in addition to having no provincial sales tax, Alberta will, if Harper's re-elected, have a smaller GST to pay (5%) -- great way to reduce the amount of money the federal government takes out of Alberta. The problem is, parts of the country, Toronto included, could really use that tax revenue. It frankly disgusts me that a province like Alberta, making unprecedented riches out of its energy-sucking, emissions-producing tar sands projects, generally feels little responsibility toward the rest of the country. In fact there is a strain of separatism in the province, so that even more oil wealth can be hoarded. I can't help but suspect that Mr. "Build a firewall around Alberta" Harper supports this individualistic program.
Harper has to get out of the mentality of making announcements to win votes and actually make investments that will generate wealth for the entire country. Toronto is a major economic engine that needs major investments to modernize its infrastructure, especially in the area of transit. The World's Fair would have given Toronto an impetus to take a major leap forward. Now, we don't even have half measures. What kind of a prime minister wouldn't support a great opportunity for the country's largest city?
wyliepoon
Senior Member
I think it does. If it doesn't really matter, why will the opening/closing and medal ceremonies be held in BC Place Stadium? It's a shame that Vancouver's beautiful cityscape and natural setting will not be showcased prominently at the opening ceremonies.