Politicians from all three levels of government promised commitment and passion if the Pan American Sports Organization granted Toronto the 2015 Pan Am Games -- now they will have to deliver.

On Friday, Toronto won the right to host the games on the first ballot at a PASO meeting in Guadalajara. The ballot was a secret one.

Mayor David Miller described the process this way in postings to Twitter, a social messaging service:

• They have given the envelope
• 50 votes cast. Only one ballot needed. Announcement is: toronto

Canada's largest city had been competing against Lima, Peru and Bogota, Colombia.

"Thank you for the confidence you have shown in Toronto," Miller said after the vote.

"And now it's on to 2015 and the best Pan Am Games ever!" said a beaming Premier Dalton McGuinty, and paid particular tribute to David Peterson, a former Liberal premier and the chair of the bid committee.

"In the end, we proved Toronto could host an event of this magnitude ... with excellence," Miller told CTV News Channel by telephone afterwards.

Toronto sold itself based on its multiculturalism, safety, facilities and support from all levels of government. "I think I can tell you the single biggest drawing feature for Toronto is our diversity," McGuinty told CTV Toronto from Guadalajara..

It was Toronto's third time vying for the prestigious hosting position. The last time southern Ontario hosted a major international sporting event was in 1930 when Hamilton secured the Commonwealth Games.

"This will be the single largest sporting event in the history of the province," McGuinty said.  "We will  welcome 42 countries, over 10,000 athletes -- and along the way, we'll create 15,000 construction jobs."

Southern Ontario will finally get some much-needed sports infrastructure, such as a velodrome and an Olympic-sized swimming pool, plus a new stadium in Hamilton, he said.

The Pan Am Games happen every four years in the year before the summer Olympic Games. The multi-sport event sees athletes from all over the Americas competing in much of the games featured in the summer Olympics.

Guadalajara will host the next Pan Am Games in 2011.

No Games Toronto

The Pan Am Games will cost $2.4 billion: $1.4 billion for the event and another $1 billion for an athlete's village. The plan is to convert it to a mixed-income neighbourhood after the games.

Ottawa and Queen's Park are putting up $500 million each towards the cost of the games, while municipalities and private investors will pay the remaining $428.5 million.

The expenditures come at a time when the province is staring at a deficit of almost $25 billion, while Toronto has serious budget woes of its own.

"We're talking about six years out. I'm very confident that we will continue to find ourselves in a position where the games will be affordable to us," McGuinty said.

The bid did not have the support of everyone in the city. A contingent of people who call their group No Games Toronto have protested it all along.

The group had been planning to show up at an event on Queen's Quay Friday night where people were expected to gather to hear the announcement live, according to Joeita Gupta, spokesperson for No Games.

Murphy Browne, a Toronto resident who helped organize a protest against the games back in October, said the city should spend the $2.4 billion it will cost them to host the event on more pressing matters.

She told ctvtoronto.ca that a large demonstration at Queen's Park on Thursday by students and anti-poverty groups highlighted Toronto's financial shortcomings.

"The government has no money to take care of people who are in need in this community. It's cold and people are living on the street -- that's more important than a one-week mega sporting event," she said.

She also pointed to a recent recommendation by the city's public transit system to raise fares and the Toronto District School Board's fight to keep their pools open as other reasons why the games are a waste of money.

"(The public) school board doesn't have money to keep their pools open but the city wants to build an Olympic-sized pool," she said. "How can the city rationalize closing community pools?"

With a report from CTV Toronto's Zuraidah Alman