Canadians are ambivalent about hosting future world sporting events, says in-house research by the Department of Canadian Heritage. Mixed views included complaints that events like the Olympics are “corrupt” and a waste of money, according to Blacklock's Reporter..“There is no clear consensus among respondents who believe large scale international sporting events will be fairly or very valuable to Canadians in the future,” said a report Future Of Sport Public Opinion Research. “In fact, the single largest proportion of respondents, 38%, don’t know how these events will offer value to Canadians,” it added..Canada last hosted the Olympics 13 years ago. Asked, “How valuable will large scale international sporting events such as the Olympics, Pan American Games or Commonwealth Games be to Canadians in the future?” 26% said they did not consider them valuable. A total of 34% replied, “fairly valuable," while 32% said, “very valuable.”.“Among those who feel large scale international events don’t offer much value to Canadians two in five, 41%, believe these events are too expensive and that taxpayers’ money should be spent addressing other priorities,” wrote researchers. “Other reasoning provided included that these events are elitist (13%), that this is not beneficial to Canadians (13%) or that they don’t care or are not interested (11%).”.Additionally, 9% said, “These events are corrupt," while 6% replied, “These events are too political.”.The findings were based on questionnaires with 9,208 people nationwide. The heritage department paid Phoenix Strategic Perspectives $145,334 for the research. “The purpose of the quantitative public opinion research was to collect information on Canadians’ perceptions of the future of sports in Canada,” said the report..Canada hosted Olympics in Montréal in 1976, Calgary in 1988 and Vancouver in 2010. Canadians also hosted the Commonwealth and forerunner British Empire Games in Hamilton in 1930, Vancouver in 1954, Edmonton in 1978 and Victoria in 1994. The Pan-American Games were held in Winnipeg in 1967 and 1999, and Toronto in 2015..Canadians’ conflicted views on hosting costly international events follow Parliament’s introduction of the Own The Podium subsidy program following a poor 19th place finish for Canadian athletes at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. The program targeted federal aid to summer sports where athletes were deemed likeliest to perform including basketball, canoeing, women’s soccer and wrestling compared to archery, taekwondo and water polo..“‘Excellence’ funding was focused on the highest priority sports to better meet their needs to achieve medal success,” said a 2006 Road To Excellence Business Plan by the Canadian Olympic Committee. “Because the ‘excellence’ funding was limited, a number of lower priority sports did not receive funding.”
