The International Olympic Committee announced the day after Calgary plebiscite vote that the result comes as no surprise to them, especially considering the rhetoric in the time leading up to the decision.

Unofficial results of the vote turned up 56.4 percent of voters against the city hosting the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, with 171,750 votes cast on the ‘no’ side and 132,832 on the ‘yes’ side.

304,774 total ballots were cast during the voting period on Tuesday and in the advance voting a week earlier.

The IOC issued a statement on Wednesday, saying that it also understood the disappointment of the members of the Calgary 2026 Committee and Canadian athletes who have been a driving force of the project.

“As well as the representatives of the business community the Paralympic Movement and the members of the First Nations who fought so hard for the Olympic project. It is disappointing that the arguments about the sporting, social and long-term benefits of hosting the Olympic Games did not sway the vote,” the group said.

Evan Woolley, Ward 8 councillor, says that the decision on Tuesday showed that Calgarians were definitely not interested in moving ahead with the bid process.

“On both sides, people expressed a lot of thoughtfulness and passion for reasons for and against this project. Ultimately, our federal and provincial governments and the IOC didn’t come with enough to the table with enough time for Calgarians to make a decision in favour of a project like this.”

City council is expected to bring up the 2026 bid debate again on Monday, but it’s likely going to be for the very last time.

“I think council has been pretty clear that they were going to abide by this plebiscite and this will wrap up next week.”

Despite that, Woolley says that there is a clear infrastructure deficit in the city and the federal and provincial governments will need to step up to fund priority projects, Olympic bid or no Olympic bid.

“The federal and provincial governments have got to come to the table continuously both with stable funding for cities as well as investments in infrastructure that they are owners and partners in.”

Lori Williams, a political scientist at Mount Royal University, says that the 'yes' side seemed to have a bit of momentum heading into the vote, but it was too little, too late.

"It wasn't so much of a victory for the 'no' side as there were people too hesitant to be able to go that extra distance and vote 'yes'. There was lots of uncertainties, lots of risk. The responsibility of the cost overruns was too much of a mountain for Calgarians."

She adds that the real strong support for the bid also came late to the conversation.

"There was enough ambivalence amongst key leaders that made it very difficult for Calgarians who knew they might be holding the bill for this, it made it very difficult for them to feel confident to vote yes."

The IOC says it will continue to cooperate with the remaining bid cities, Milan/Cortina, Italy and Stockholm, Sweden.

You can learn more about Tuesday’s plebiscite vote here.