Consultants that were hired to carry out public engagement on Calgary's bid for the '26 Winter Games said that the city’s effort to "solicit online feedback" was partly "spoiled by internet bots," according to Meghan Potkins of the CALGARY HERALD. Vancouver-based consulting firm Context "revealed the difficulties at council’s Olympic committee," which met for a final time yesterday ahead of the Nov. 13 plebiscite. The city "collected more than 7,770 responses through its online engagement platform over a four-week period in October." The largest response group, around 42%, said they “strongly disagree” with the city submitting a bid to host the Games. Overall, about 49% either strongly disagreed or disagreed with a bid, while 34% strongly agreed or agreed that the city should submit a bid. A further 16% were "undecided." However, committee members learned that 6,000 responses to the online portal "had to be deleted due to concerns that they originated from automated bots rather than actual Calgarians." Consultants said that the bot activity amounted to about 46% of "total responses." Potkins notes yesterday's meeting also saw committee members "presented with a cost-benefit analysis of the bid by financial firm Ernst & Young." The report suggests that hosting the Games could be a "net positive for Calgary, with residents standing to gain benefits" estimated to value between C$230-570M (CALGARY HERALD, 11/7). Elections Calgary said that 28,923 people "voted on the first day of advance polls for the Olympic bid plebiscite." Of those, 21,185 voted "in person at polling stations and 7,738 voted through mail-in ballots" (CBC.ca, 11/6).
