Vancouver votes today on the topic to support the Olympics. Although the vote isn't binding, it can have a serious effect on the bid for the 2010 Winter Games.
i was in whistler last week and every local i talked to was totally against the olympics. dunno what that means, i just thought i would share it.
It would suck to be a local during this, and a lot of changes would be made = whole place go corporate.
The plebicite was only for those who lived in Vancover proper. The rest of the province didn't get a chance to even vote. This included some of the communities around Vancouver that would get some of the venues. The politicans claimed that support was in the 70-80% range. The vote seemed to prove otherwise. The numbers might have even been lower if the vote was province-wide.
It's usually a very good bet that the big wigs at Whistler were the main drivers behind this bid. Same with Park City in the Salt Lake bid. It was especially important for Park City (from their POV) to get a leg up on the Colorado resorts, and Whistler may (I suspect, anyway) want to edge in on, oh, Banff's market. Was in Vancouver on Sunday. Seemed passe to most of the people I came across. As for "going corporate," if it isn't the Olympics, there will always be other reasons. With the Olympics, at least the corporates actually spend money in your town. If you don't go for it, the Republicans / Tories / etc. just make themselves richer. May as well try to get a cut.