Calgary 2026 Winter Olympics?

City hopes to bring back the Olympics almost 40 years later

Who can forget the illustrious 1988 Olympic Winter Games. Hosted in Calgary, Alberta, Team Canada achieved a whopping zero gold medals, two silvers and three golds. Despite Canada’s shortcomings, the game was a turning point in to injecting viability and legitimacy in the winter games.  

Now, 30 years later, Calgary is one of the three remaining bids (along with Stockholm, Sweden and the combined Italian bid of Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo) for the 2026 event. 

A part of their bid centered around the ability to have transferrable facilities that can transform into affordable housing, or other attainable market housing. They also wanted to utilize the remaining  buildings and structures from the 1988 games.  

However, Even if the Olympic facilities are transformed to a usable state at the end of the games, that will cost more money then what the budget anticipated. 

In Canada’s first foray in hosting; Montreal 1976, the burden on the city led to a thirty-year battle to repay the 1.2 billion in debts.  Since 1960, no Olympics has ever been under budget. The preliminary numbers are always lower than the final cost. 

Some may perceive that an Olympics is a boon for the tourism sector. In fact, Olympic tourists take over for the regular tourists who want to stay away from the excessive congestion. The city’s itself that host are already well known, so a large surplus in tourism revenue is hardly reached. 

Calgary’s initial budget is set at $5.2 billion. Sochi’s 2014 games cost $51 billion, the most ever in history. Perhaps a more accurate comparison for Calgary would be South Korea. The most recent winter games, held in Pyeongchang, had an overall cost of $13 billion. Curiously, the county has a population of over 40 000, so the extravagant infrastructure is rendered almost useless once the games ended. The Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium, which hosted the opening and closing ceremonies, has already been torn down. Its cost? A ho-hum $109 million. 

It is clear the immense burden that cities have during the games, and the amount of money they are in debt for. So, an idea that has been floated around is of having an island that hosts the more expensive summer games every Olympics. With an island, which can operate as an international city-state, each country competing would contribute to the construction of it. The result would lead to an Olympic village that can stand for years on end. Economies being destroyed, and poor individuals being displaced (Rio: 2014) would no longer happen. 

As well, these games could be more flexible with regards to ideas being tested and the ability to pursue environmentally sound options. 

However, for at least the next ten years, the Olympics will be held in cities. The allure of bidding for them have greatly subsided. The International Olympic Committee (IOC)  jointly announced the recipients of the 2024 and 2028 games last year as they were worried no one would be in the bidding process for 2028. 

What’s encouraging is the successful bid in 2026 that wins the right to host the games will be getting 1.2 billion CAD from the IOC. This will help mitigate costs, but is nowhere near enough.  

November 13 is the day all Calgarians vote in a plebiscite whether they want the city to host the Winter and Paralympic Games.

Premier Rachel Notley, along with Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi have been arduously supporting the bid, and their political influence may cause many to vote yes. It is important for all in Calgary to be educated with regards to the bid, as it will be their taxes that would inevitably be funding this event.

A Silver Star in the Cote First Nation

Brigette Lacquette is an inspiration for all First Nations’ athletes

As Team Canada collapsed to the ice, heartbroken after losing in a shootout to their vaunted rivals, the feeling of silver was a bitter one to swallow, at least temporarily.

The game was the gold medal match of the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. There was one specific individual on the ice who had plenty to be proud of, that being the Cote born Brigette Lacquette.

Asked if in time, the silver medal will be something she will be proud of Laquette responded “Maybe with time.” Lacquette was the first First Nations hockey player named to Canada’s National Women’s team, and she played key minutes in the final match.

She tallied one assist during the Olympic games as well. The accomplishment was a long time coming, as the 26-year-old had a successful three-year career at the University of Minnesota Duluth. There, the defenceman tallied 69 points in 106 games and racked up 166 penalty minutes as her physicality was on full display.

She was born in Mallard, Manitoba, a tiny community of 150 residents. However, her roots are embedded in the Cote First Nations community, located near the border of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Speaking with CBC, Lacquette said “My mom’s from Cote and that’s where she grew up.”

Unfortunately, she suffered from a bad form of eczema when she was young, and hockey was her refuge.

Her dad, Terance Lacquette, of Métis heritage and the O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nations, saw firsthand how tough it was for her and said to CBC, “When she was sitting in class, it would get itchy and she’d sweat. When she got onto the ice, she was able to hide her arms and scars and everything with her hockey equipment and she felt like just another person out there.”

She was also subjected to racist taunts, at the young age of 12. Her Dad remembers it well.

“Girls that age, you know, sometimes they get nasty and say things that they don’t mean. And on this occasion the one girl - actually a couple of them - starts saying something about Briggie and calling her a ‘dirty Indian’, ‘Go back to the reserve,’ and comments like that.”

“I could see when she came to the bench that something was bothering her, and she would have tears in her eyes, and it wasn’t the same joy that she had”.

Photo: eaglefeathernews.ca

Her perseverance through these hardships is what made her so special. One of her idols, and the reason for her love of hockey, is because of the former NHL player Jordan Tootoo. He is of Inuk heritage and the first player to grow up in Nunavut to play in an NHL game. She spoke to CBC about his impact, “Honestly, when world juniors happened in ’03, and Jordin Tootoo came on the scene, that’s when everything started. I was super amazed. He’s from up north, and he actually played in Brandon at that time too… it was a junior A team in Northern Manitoba, and I loved them.”

She also had the honour of having her Olympic hockey stick included in the Hockey Hall of Fame diversity exhibit earlier this year.

She used to be in awe of the great Canadian Women’s players like Hayley Wickenhesier, but she never had a First Nations player to look up to. Now, she is that player. She is very active in her community and surrounding tribes, knowing that all it takes is an opportunity for the next Brigette Lacquette to be found.

“It’s just very special for me to be that role model for young First Nation girls across Canada, Indigenous kids across Canada. I’m just super excited to be that person for them.”

Her father adds that “She basically kicked that door over and knocked it down and it’s not a barrier anymore in her life, and that’s something that’s important for not only her but anybody who’s faced a barrier in their life.”

The odds of a young First Nations girl from a community of 150 growing up and making   the national hockey team were miniscule. Lacquette shattered those odds and earned a silver medal while inspiring indigenous women.

Canadian Greatness

Canada leaves its most successful Olympics to date with 29 medals

After years of mediocrity in Olympic sport, Team Canada has slowly risen to become one of the most dominant countries in the Winter Olympics. Since the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver where the team won 14 gold medals, the most in Canadian history, our nation has consistently delivered high quality performances. No Olympic Games have been more successful for Canada than this year. Reaching a record of 29 medals, Canada placed third in the overall medal standings. Eleven gold, eight silver and ten bronze, behind only the surprising Norway with 39 medals and Germany with 31.

The non-profit organization Own the Podium was created in 2010 to help prepare Canadian athletes for medal finishes. The goal was for Canada to be a world leader in high performance sport at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The organization enabled more funding for winter sports throughout the country, helping athletes train and perform at their best, whilst being coached by top notch instructors. 

The 2018 games, held in PyeongChang, South Korea, was a rousing success for the country. 

On the second day of the games, 4 medals were awarded to team Canada, with a bronze going to Regina native Mark McMorris, who competed in Men’s Slopestyle Snowboarding nearly eleven months after a horrific crash that landed him in the Intensive Care Unit. Maxence Parrot came away with a silver medal in the same event while later during the games, a gold for Sebastien Toutant in the Big Air event was rightly won. 

Kim Boutin, a 23-year-old short track speed skater from Quebec amassed three medals in the games with two bronze and a silver. She was also chosen to be the flag bearer for Canada in the closing ceremonies. 

Dutch born Ted-Jan Bloemen was able to win two medals in long track speed skating. He did so representing his adopted home of Canada, having moved here in 2014 to compete with the national team. His father was born in Bathurst, New Brunswick, allowing Bloemen the opportunity to have dual citizenship and the option of which country to compete for. 

The always exciting Ski Cross event did not disappoint this year, as there were Gold medals awarded to both the men and women’s teams. Brady Leman from Calgary, along with Kelsey Serwa from Kelowna took home the golds, with Kelsey’s teammate Brittany Phelan capturing silver. 

Some scintillating, sensual performances from Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (are they dating??) set the internet on fire, as they captured the gold medal in Ice Dancing. They also claimed a gold in the figure skating team event. This was the final Olympics for the duo, and the two were honored with flag bearing duties at the opening ceremonies. 

Mixed Doubles Curling made its maiden appearance at the Olympics this year, where the team of John Morris and Kaitlyn Lawes won the gold medal. It was unfortunately the only gold medal for Canada in curling, as the women’s team was eliminated in round robin play, while the men fell into fourth after a tough bronze medal match. This was the first Olympics that Canada failed to medal in men’s and women’s curling. 

While individual athletes flourished, teams had tougher times. The vaunted Women’s Hockey team took their first loss at the Olympics since February 17, 1998 in heartbreaking fashion, having to settle for silver, with a shootout loss to the Americans. The men’s team was unexpectedly upset by Germany in the semi-finals, but was able to bounce back, defeating the Czech Republic in the bronze medal game. This was the first Olympics since 1994 that prohibited NHL players participation, which greatly impacted the level of play during the tournament. 

However, several electric performances and all-around dominance helped captivate many, even if the time difference was 13 hours for viewers back home. The great success of this year’s games potentially opens the door for Canada to host another Olympics, with the bidding of the 2026 games being potentially pursued by the city of Calgary.

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