Because politicians rarely have the balls to stand up and tell the IOC they're full of shit. The pols don't want to be accused of being naysayers, so when the IOC makes its pitch about how wonderful it is to have the Olympics, they jump on the boosterism bandwagon.

Toronto is an oversized one-horse town that for decades has been desperately trying to prove to itself it's a world city. They just spent megabucks trying to get the '08 games even though they have nothing in the way of facilities. All the rest of Ontario (which always has to pick up the tab when Toronto falls on its face) heaved a great collective sigh of relief when that foisted the mess off on Bejing.

david