Bad news for Vancouver’s bid for the 2030 Winter Games: the polls are against it. An opinion poll conducted in British Columbia shows that only 43% of respondents believe that the authorities should “definitely” or “probably” go ahead with the bid. On the other side of the spectrum, 45% do not trust the 2030 Winter Games in Vancouver. Finally, 12% of those questioned said they were still undecided. In itself, nothing dramatic, as the pros and cons remain fairly close to each other. But more worryingly, enthusiasm for the Winter Games is in free fall. A similar survey, conducted in January 2020, showed a 17-point increase in interest in the Olympic and Paralympic event. So at the start of the pandemic, British Columbians wanted to see the Winter Games again, twenty years after Vancouver 2010. Today, opinion is more divided, and much less enthusiastic. The Vancouver 2030 plan, led by John Furlong, proposes a low-cost Winter Games, mostly funded by the private sector and using venues already built. But more than half of those surveyed (55%) believe that it is “impossible” to organise such an event without public subsidies. With such a drop in confidence in the polls, Vancouver’s bid may well end before it has really begun. Within the city council, the two camps are opposed and no majority has been able to emerge around the project, despite a succession of meetings and debates held last year and at the beginning of the year.
