Following on the heels of Halifax’s withdrawal from bidding for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Commonwealth Games Canada (CGC) is considering another Commonwealth Games bid. Halifax withdrew from the 2014 bid in March 2007, eight months before the end of the bid period.
Dr. Andrew Pipe, President of the CGF said, “we have completed a very valuable (review) and are now ready to move forward and consider a bid to host a future Games in Canada. We learned many lessons from our examination of the Halifax experience, and as an organization will now embark on developing a bid strategy that will ensure success for the next Canadian candidate city”.
The Globe and Mail reports the announcement came at the end of the international Commonwealth Games Federation executive board meeting in Ottawa, where earlier this week the CGF and CGF officials met to compare reviews of the 2014 bid.
Michael Fennell, President of the CGF said, “Canada has a special and historic role in the Commonwealth Games movement. We concluded two days of fulsome discussion about the previous bid and shared valuable lessons around the domestic and international components of the bid processes. We now look forward to Canada bidding for a future Games, possibly as early as 2018”.
Dr. Pike said, “we are disappointed that no government representatives were able to attend the forum. We are looking forward to sharing our findings over the coming weeks with our government and sport partners in order to strengthen Canada’s ability to attract future international sporting events to our nation”.
