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Meanwhile, the rare positive comment has been generally met with a flurry of dislike votes.

Alongside the comments, an online survey asking site visitors’ opinion on whether Calgary should submit a bid for the Games are similarly gloomy, with some 81 per cent of the 3,600 who had voted as of Monday afternoon expressing their opposition.

Jason Ribeiro, an organizer with the pro-Olympics group Yes Calgary 2026, said he’s disappointed to see the city’s process appears to have been derailed by Games’ opponents whose preferred battlefield in the contentious debate is behind a keyboard.

“The No side has focused very much on social media. I don’t even know if all these people are in Calgary — there’s literally nothing to stop people from all over the world from commenting on this,” he said.

“What I’ve seen is an engagement process that is flawed as it seems to only appeal to the No side.”

A sampling of comments posted to the city’s Engage site:

Ribeiro said his volunteer-run group has been hitting recreation centres, post-secondary campuses and coffee shops trying to engage people in conversation while those hoping to prevent a Calgary bid have used the power of social media to their advantage.

While the online portal has been operating for weeks, the city will begin its first of six open houses planned ahead of the Nov. 13 plebiscite at the Dalhousie Community Association Tuesday night.

The city hired Vancouver-based Context Research to run its public engagement process, a contract worth $500,000.