The Summer Olympics have always been the domain of VERY large cities (by Canadian standards).
Tokyo, Rio, London, Beijing...heck, Athens and Atlanta are on the low end and their metros are over 4 million.
Cities like Edmonton or Ottawa are wonderful candidates for the Commonwealth Games (and Edmonton is bidding for the 2022 games) but they're completely unrealistic as far as a Summer Olympics bid goes.
Someone threw out the idea of a high speed rail link to Jasper from Edmonton for an Olympics...perhaps that be the one way to actually get us high speed rail in this province, hosting a huge event like the Olympics? Maybe an Alberta bid overall with indoor events (hockey, curling, figure skating, etc) split between Calgary and Edmonton, and the mountain events being held in Jasper and Banff/Lake Louise? Perhaps that's a bit ambitious for a Winter Olympics geography-wise, but high-speed rail links between these places would definitely make it more viable.