North Shore News readers are overwhelmingly in favour of the province's decision not to support the Indigenous-led 2030 Olympics bid, according to a new poll.
Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport Minister Lisa Beare confirmed on Oct. 27 that the provincial government would not be supporting the bid led by the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Tsleil-Waututh, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and Lil̓wat7úl (Líl̓wat) Nations, citing billions of dollars in direct costs and liabilities if the bid were to be successful.
North Shore News polled 1,606 online readers and asked the question: How do you feel about the province declining to support the Indigenous-led 2030 Olympic bid?
The poll ran from Oct. 27 to Nov. 4. Of the 1,606 votes, we can determine that 636 are from within the community. The full results are as follows:
Response to the decision from local First Nations leadership was critical, saying the move was a step back for reconciliation.
“We've invited the province to our table to have the discussion on the 2030 Olympics. And what happened was, they took their chairs away from our table, had the discussion on their own and made this [decision] without having any conversation with us,” said elected Tsleil-Waututh councillor Dennis Thomas.
At a press conference held Oct. 28, Squamish Nation councillor Sxwíxwtn (Wilson Williams) said they should have been given more time to negotiate with senior levels of government before a decision was announced.
“We didn't come to the table asking for a blank check,” Williams said. “We were given terms of, ‘This ain't the right time.’ When will be the right time for Indigenous peoples to be at the forefront in this so-called spirit of reconciliation?”
Results are based on an online study of adult North Shore News readers that are located in North Vancouver and West Vancouver. The margin of error - which measures sample variability - is +/- 2.44%, 19 times out of 20.
North Shore News uses a variety of techniques to capture data, detect and prevent fraudulent votes, detect and prevent robots, and filter out non-local and duplicate votes.
