They believe it offers a model based on business support rather than public funding.

The Calgary Herald reported that representatives of the CTF made their point by draping themselves in Swedish flags and carrying a plate of Swedish meatballs in a small demonstration across the road from an IKEA in southeast Calgary.

The CTF's Alberta director Franco Terrazzano said the Swedish bid, if successful, would not only promote a model for hosting the Games based on business support rather than public funds, but would save Calgarian taxpayers "billions of dollars" combined.

"The last thing that Calgary needs is more taxes, more Government debt and more Government mismanagement," Terrazzano said to the Calgary Herald.

The CTF estimates that hosting the 2026 Winter Games could cost every Calgary household at least $2,000 (£1,500/€1,700).

"This does not need to be funded using billions of taxpayer dollars," Terrazzano added.

"If businesses want to use their money to invest, then why not? 

"Taxpayers should not be footing billions of dollars for a sporting event."

He added: "The Stockholm City Government, they're hoping to make sure that their taxpayers aren't footing the Winter Olympics.

"This is the type of model that needs to be used moving forward.

"If the Olympics was able to come to town without using taxpayer dollars, the CTF would support it.

"Sadly, this is just not the case."

Calgary is due to be visited by International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials this week but their bid could collapse after a key plebiscite next month.

Stockholm's bid is also at risk after lawmakers in the new coalition running the city highlighted their concerns about spending taxpayer money.

Organisers of Sweden's Olympic bid have tried to assure Stockholm's newly formed local Government that the city's taxpayers will not be asked to foot the bill for the 2026 Winter Games if the bid is successful.

"We have not approached the notion of tax-based funding or any financial guarantees whatsoever for the operating costs of the Games," Mats Arjes, chairman of the Swedish Olympic Committee, said last week.

He added that the only financial guarantee required would be for "national security" which was already tax-funded.

Stockholm's bid team says 90 per cent of the venues that would be used for the Games already exist, and that only a new ice rink and a skiing venue need to be built.

The latter requirement for the Swedish bid has in turn been highlighted, however, by the pro-Olympics group Yes Calgary 2026.

"They'll still need construction of some venues," said Jason Ribeiro, a Yes Calgary 2026 organiser.

"Even if they're looking at private sponsorships completely for operations, the essential services that are required with that are still needing to be taxpayer-funded."

Ribeiro added to the Calgary Herald: "It was funny to see the CTF support a bid which is specifically seeking tax funding and guarantees from the Swedish Government, where taxation is nearly twice as high as Canada."

Ribeiro stressed that Stockholm is committed to further building for its bid.

"Even if the Government and the Council have signalled we don't want to pay for this, in order to put forward a bid, those things have to get built," he said.

"So there's a huge question mark around construction of those new venues and who's actually going to pay for it."

In response to the CTF's latest action, the Calgary 2026 bid corporation said in a statement that the chance to host the Winter Olympics "is the best opportunity we have in front of us".

"This is not about a choice of spending dollars on the Olympics or other priorities," they said.

"If the Games are not held here, billions of dollars will not come to Calgary.

"These investments come with the 2026 Games or they do not.

"The biggest reason Games go over budget is that hundreds of millions of dollars are spent building large, expensive new venues and facilities.

"We saw this with Rio, Sochi, Lake Placid, Lillehammer.

"This is not the Calgary model - it is not the Calgary way: no white elephants."

The current shortlist of 2026 Games bidders also includes an Italian bid formed by Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.

A decision will be made by the IOC next year.