Our Game Plan
Hamilton has been selected as Commonwealth Sport Canada’s preferred candidate city to host the Commonwealth Games. Originally, we were working to compete globally for the right to host 2030. Now, we are being gifted the right to host the Games in 2026, subject only to securing government support.
The XXIII Commonwealth Games will be held in late summer 2026. If staged in Hamilton it will be the largest event in this City and surrounding region in its history and the first time the Games will have been hosted in Ontario since their founding in Hamilton in 1930.
Curating a successful and memorable Commonwealth Games which inspires and motivates our community, focusses the attention of all of Canada on us over the next 6 years, and 1.5 billion spectators during the event itself in 2026, and brings us together in an historic effort, is vital. But this is about much more than providing a ‘Great Games’. In accepting the Commonwealth Federation’s unexpected invitation to partner in the creation of a transformative experience in 2026 centered on recovery and regeneration, we are being gifted an unprecedented opportunity to leverage one of the world’s great public celebrations to supplement and accelerate our recovery planning while simultaneously addressing a host of abiding economic and social challenges.
How will this help us? The 2026 Commonwealth Games project will:
Cumulatively, the benefits above will result in a significant number of new jobs, goods and services contracts for local business, skills training and experiential learning for students and recent graduates, and renewed impetus and investment aimed at fully and finally solving our affordable housing crisis; all while transforming our region.
By embracing the 2026 Games, the attention and capacities of our local communities as well as that of 71 nations and territories across the Commonwealth will be focused on this region, our city and most importantly, on our children, all working towards a better future.
Join us!
Volunteer Leaders
P. J. Mercanti
Lou FrapportiRon Foxcroft
Greg Maychak
Cecelia Carter-Smith
S. Jasper Kujavsky
Mark Wu
Therese QuigleyScott Moore
Community Members
Gowling WLG
McMaster University
Mohawk College
Redeemer University
Indwell
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton