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As Calgary’s city council voted to spend $2 million more for a possible 2026 Olympics bid, you could almost hear the cash being flushed, the time being wasted, the reports being buried, the councillors being sent to therapy.

That’s before the city even qualifies to make a formal bid, which would in turn cost at least $30 million, to later spend $4.6 billion to host the Winter Games.

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Calgary wouldn’t get an answer from the International Olympic Committee until July 19, 2019, in Milan, Italy — nearly three years after the city started spending money last September.

This is a ludicrous system, devised by and for the faded European aristocrats who have long dominated the International Olympic Committee.

They delight in the paid visits, the fine meals and hotel rooms, the obeisance and tribute from around the globe. It’s like 1750 all over again.

The growing mystery is why more cities don’t just thumb their civic noses at this outfit.