Toronto's Olympic Aspirations: A Bid for the Waterfront¹

Abstract

For more than 50 years Toronto, Ontario, Canada has sought to host the Olympic Games. This article argues that Toronto's quest to win the right to host does not emerge from a love of sport, but rather stems from the city's inability to define the meaning and purpose of its water-front. Through merging the symbolic power of sport with the spatial significance of Toronto's waterfront land, various interest groups have used bids for the Olympic Games as an occasion to redefine the vision for the city's waterfront. Toronto's bids for the Olympics have never been successful, but this paper argues that there is much to be gained from investigating a city that has failed to win the right to host the Olympics Games. The bidding process remains crucial to the course of urban redevelopment even in the event of a failed bid.

Keywords:

• Olympic bids
• waterfront development
• symbols
• Olympic legacies