Yes vote in plebiscite doesn't guarantee Olympic bid, says Nenshi

Calgary council will not pursue the Olympics at any costeven if a plebiscite shows public support for the Games,Mayor NaheedNenshisaid on Wednesday.

"At some point after the plebiscite, and I don't know exactly when, council will then vote on whether to continue or suspend. So if there's a no vote, I imagine that council will vote to stop the work. If there's a yes vote, that doesn't necessarily mean yes at all costs," he said.

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"It allows the work to continue but council still reserves the right, if there's not a good deal there or it doesn't work for the City of Calgary, to pull out of the process."

He said the metric for a decision will be 50 per cent plus one, but that he would prefer a stronger mandate in either direction.

High turnout on first day

The non-binding plebiscite is on Nov. 13, but advance voting started Tuesday and continued on Wednesday.

There were long lines at some polling stations on Tuesday. According to the city, 28,923Calgarians cast a ballot in person and another 7,738 voted throughmail-in ballots.

On Wednesday, another 84 mail-in ballots were received and 25,435 voted in person, bringing the total number of advance ballots cast to 54,442.

Nenshisaid he's "super happy" with the high turnout, pointing to low turnout as the worst possible outcome for the plebiscite.

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Asked about a CBCCalgary poll that shows a majority don't support a bid, the mayor remained optimistic.

"It's a great pollster, Janet Brown; it's a very small sample size, just 200 people in Calgary," he said, although the actual number was 243.

"There's lots of polling going on and I've certainly seen polls that are much, much closer."

The poll's findings still held when the margin of error was considered.

When asked who would be responsible for any cost overruns tied to the Games, the mayor said the city is working out details on the bid and the proposed funding agreement with other levels of government.