Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie (Calgary Midnapore, AB) has sponsored a petition requesting the Canadian government save the Olympic Plaza bricks and the inscribed names on them from destruction. To help support the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, 33,000 Calgarians paid $19.88 each to sponsor a brick. “Names were inscribed on each and they were to be immortalized in Olympic Plaza,” tweeted Kusie on Thursday. “Unfortunately, they are now set to be destroyed.”.Kusie said these bricks “represent sentimental value to thousands of people in our city and are a part of Calgary’s identity; something our woke Mayor seems dead-set on eroding.”Calgary resident Tyler Ukrainetz said in the petition the 1988 Winter Olympic Games were a historic event in Alberta and Canada. “The Olympic Plaza was a significant structure in those Games where champions would gather nightly,” said Ukrainetz. “Albertans showed their support of the Games through volunteering and attending in record numbers.”To support the construction of Olympic Plaza, people purchased the structural bricks creating it. The signatories called on the Canadian government to recognize the significance of the engraved names on the bricks in Olympic Plaza and ensure they are preserved, recognized, and featured in the creation of any new structure. The petition opened for signatures on Tuesday. It closes for signatures on December 21. Seventy people have signed the petition as of Friday. Officials said in August the upcoming rejuvenation of Olympic Plaza would not include the engraved bricks encircling it. While the bricks have significant meaning, officials from the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC), the City of Calgary, and Arts Commons offered an update on the $70-million Olympic Plaza transformation project, confirming that having them in the new design would be too expensive and tough. CMLC President and CEO Kate Thompson said officials looked into reincorporating them into the design or taking them out and giving them back to their purchasers. Because of their age and condition, Thompson said doing so would be impossible without damaging them and would come with a significant cost and delay to the project’s timeline.
