Canadian Government Involvement in Calgary’s Failed 1968 Winter Olympic Bid

Abstract

In the early 1960s the Canadian government in Ottawa saw international events, including major sporting events, as a way to bolster Canada’s position globally. To support Calgary’s bid for the 1968 Olympic Winter Games, the Canadian federal government formed an interdepartmental committee to work with the Calgary Olympic Development Association to try to improve the Canadian city’s chance of winning the Olympic Games. The inclusion of sites within Banff National Park for some of the proposed competition venues required federal government involvement, but John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson’s governments became even more involved in the bid process than was typical at the time because of the importance with which they viewed the Olympic Games to their broader public diplomacy efforts. The extensive work to support Calgary’s (ultimately unsuccessful) 1968 Olympic Winter Games bid foreshadowed the importance of federal government involvement in the bidding stages and not just their involvement in the organizing of the Olympic Games themselves.