Rhino's Ramblings: New Slogan Idea Draws Fire

EDITOR'S NOTE – The following is the personal opinion of the writer and may or may not reflect the views of MJ Independent.

We offer the City of Moose Jaw, Tourism Moose Jaw, Moose Jaw and District Chamber of Commerce, Matt Groenig or others the opportunity to respond

Robert Thomas

It seemed like an ordinary, innocuous moment when Councillor Brian Swanson stood up this past Monday and asked a pair of questions regarding a new slogan for the City.

The first question was "when was this decided?" and the second concerned who was going to pay for it? Two questions on a night when Council held a lengthy debate trying to find $186,000 to upgrade two high priority intersections and borrowed $30 million to ensure we can get water from Buffalo Pound to the city.

The timing of Councillor Swanson's questions, in the eyes of many Council watchers and readers of this column, could not have been more timely.

Changing slogans is not an inexpensive proposition. The last time, if I remember, had a ballpark cost of $60,000, which in today's tight money reality is no small amount. In my modest neighbourhood it’s equivalent to the taxes of everyone on the block if the City were to fork out the entire amount.

But as we were told by Mayor Frasier Tolmie, the cost is being shared between the City, Tourism Moose Jaw and the Moose Jaw and District Chamber of Commerce. We just have yet to be told who is paying what amount.

To soften the blow, Mayor Tolmie did respond that it would not be new money but coming out of existing Administration funding. But it leaves more than a few scratching their heads on what page and line of the more comprehensive budget documents Council members receive was this expenditure under?

And really, if there is any money leftover to pay for this in such a tight budget perhaps the first expenditure should be a better pencil sharpener for the Budget Committee.

For many of my coffee crew throughout the city, when they read what happened at Council. the chorus of criticism was overwhelming and widely received as a waste of time and money.

“last week they were turning people upside down in their wheelchairs to shake out what little spare change they have for parking and now their wasting money on this.”

It’s a criticism which, in my mind, has some validity to it. But it goes much further than that and it really goes into who decides what slogan or how we define ourselves? Who makes this decision? And more importantly, under whose authority do they make it? Isn’t it more of a community thing and not the responsibility of a select few looking to market the City to ourselves and the world?

“last week they were turning people upside down in their wheelchairs to shake out what little spare change they have for parking and now their wasting money on this. ”

But on the other side of the coin do we just admit Moose Jaw is really the fictional Springfield popularized in The Simpson's and hold a town meeting and then decide by a committee of the mob our own slogan? Such a possibility is mind boggling but yet so typically Moose Javian.

We could maybe try marketing ourselves as who we are – Moose Jaw - but sorry that has been trademarked by a US clothing manufacturer years ago and now belongs to WalMart.

I remember speaking to the manager of their store in St Louis, Missouri who freely told me the founders of the company stole the name from us. The company even tells it’s employees the story of the uniqueness of our name and why they use it.

We have been bamboozled at the marketing game by Yankees who are too busy trying to Make America Great Again and screw us over in trade.

The old slogan, ‘Surprisingly Unexpected,' was supposed to make us seem like a hidden treasure and a jewel of undiscovered uniqueness to bring in tourist dollars. It’s one which seemed to fly in some crowds but for many others was a never ending source of satire to poke fun of the leadership of the City.

Now there are going to be some out there who are going to say that we need this slogan because it fits our vision where the City should be headed which to me is fine. The thing is is it the right vision? And if it is why?

The ‘Surprisingly Unexpected’ slogan seemed to have a bit of a marketing punch because with heavy government subsidization Moose Jaw's tourist market seemed to respond.

The Downtown was starting to attract visitors that not only stayed overnight at the Spa and gambled at the Casino but also visited restaurants and the merchants, adding dollars into the economy. We had some really decent Casino Moose Jaw concerts at the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre that seem to have ended, mysteriously, with no explanation.

We even had a historic looking trolley to haul tourists and others around the city until this year it broke down and, like the City's slogan, is presently undergoing a total overhaul and rebuild.

But just like it started with a boom, tourism has since taken a tumble and, from my sources, it’s down considerably from its height and we have lost our shine and appeal.

The once elegant jewel; the magnificently restored and upgraded Grant Hall Hotel even ended up on the delinquent tax roll, owing a cool $150,000 in back taxes. The grandiose River Street West redevelopment has fizzled. Empty lots which were, up until this week, weed covered, only cleared out due to the actions of Colonel Hogan Finnell and his Heroes right in front of Kommodant Klink and Sergeant Schultz’s noses.

It all leaves me thinking, do we really need a new marketing slogan when what is needed is a good rethink about where Moose Jaw is headed? Do we listen to Marge Simpson and fix Main Street or any other street for that matter or do we dream bigger and buy that monorail?