Maloney's Musings

Twenty years after the “Breads Not Circus” bleeding hearts (including the late Jack Layton) helped put the kibosh on Toronto’s 1996 Olympic bid, a recent movement to get Toronto into the running was summarily shot-down by mayor Rob Ford and councilor Doug Ford, the resident frat brothers at Toronto City Hall.

“It's just not the time,” Doug Ford told the media. “Everyone would love it but financially no one is in the shape to take it.”

The problem is: when is the time? With the Summer Olympics not having been in North America for nearly a quarter century and the United States decidedly out of the running (due to the USOC’s financial dispute with the IOC), the most advantageous time possible for Toronto to win an Olympic bid is now.  The Games would have a tremendously positive impact on the city and sport in general as they did in facilities in Montreal and Calgary (it’s too soon to tell on Vancouver).

Of course, we’re confident the cultural significance and economic benefits of the Games were not lost on the cultural aficionados at City Hall, whose main priority these days seems to be a Ferris Wheel and who by their own admission wouldn’t recognize Canada’s most famous author (Margaret Atwood) if they met her in the street. I digress.

 It is a shame because such a bid would likely have been very well received by the IOC but we will never find out.

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