Toronto has a slogan (“Diversity Our Strength” — ugh) and a dumb new city “seal” apparently, whatever. The best thing about this is a post from I, Ectomorph, deconstructing the new seal for you (complete with helpful colour illustration):
“Various elements of the design are intended to symbolize our diversity in various respects, although (curiously) the old colonialist coat of arms that was junked in favour of this actually dared to depict diversity in human form, represented 50% by women in non-traditional roles (Britannia militaristically bearing her shield) and 50% by visible minorities (an impressive native Indian warrior).
“But for now we’ll have to make do with the diversity of a beaver and a bear, drawn the same size to symbolize the modern Torontonian’s unfamiliarity with animals other than racoons, pigeons and shih-tzus.”
(Via Sailer)
Interesting that something that is created to be as politically correct and all encompassing as can be has the opposite effect on those whose original principals and ethics founded and created canada as it stands.
That bird at the top looks a little familiar….someone didn’t check this one well enough
http://usmbooks.com/images/EAGLES/ESzz.jpg
The Chicken on top looks almost militaristic, is Mayor Miller up to something?
He hasn’t done anything obvious for Toronto with the millions of dollars collected…
I am so glad I do not live in the GTA……
Good Greif!
They should have included an icon representing the trees of Toronto: a tree planted in concrete, consigned to a short distressed life, then cut in half-mid trunk and left for years as a silent yet ugly reminder that the city’s works department is clueless. There are lots of sawn-off dead trees encased in cement throughout the downtown core.
Also missing is the ubiquituous sh%t hawk, aka the seagull, mooching for your fries as you sit in Nathan Phillip’s Square.
A little bit of stink rising from the Don River would not be out of place. Perhaps an equally stinky homeless guy could be shown picking through the garbage bins looking for food.
A loon could represent former mayor Mel Lastman, as well as current mayor David Miller and the rest of the left-wing whack jobs who control Toronto council.
A poodle could represent the metrosexuals of the Toronto islands, the St. Lawrence Market area, Liberty Village, and Rosedale.
And make that eagle a bald eagle if Stephen LeDrew gets in.
I love it how 9 years after the fact Toronto has finally accepted its amalgamation.
Although our fearless leader here in MB Garry (dolittle) Doer has given us the illuminating new credo of “Spirited Energy”…….makes yo feel warm and tingly all over no?
The bird is, I see, supposed to be a golden eagle, *far* superior to the bald eagle – maybe. The style is vaguely reminiscent of Zoroastrian symbolism – but the impression I get from the Arms is, “we really wish we could turn into Americans”.
Hey what do you expect from Hogtown?
Lets trade Toronto for North Dakota. Jake
Has PETA approved this?
Diversity’ sounds like some kind of disease to me.
Diversity’ sounds like some kind of disease.
Fitting!
That beardog/weasal animal has the same goofy look on his face as the 4 drunks who drink Chinese cooking sherry and crap in my back alley.
Thank you Jack and Olivia!
Diversity is our strength?
Whatever happened to a house divided against itself cannot stand?
Oh, progressive socialism I guess, how stupid of me.
Did you hear the one about the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew, The African, the Native American, the Sioux, The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek, The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheik, The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher, The privileged, the homeless, and the Teacher that walked into a bar? I haven’t; I was just wondering if anyone else had.
As a former Torontonian I am absolutely offended by their neocolonial use of English only on the city’s shield. Um … hello? The city shield is supposed to represent all of us, not just the English speaking minority, I demand that it be translated into Tagalog, American Sign Language, Braile, Esperanto, dislexic, ebonics and all other progressive languages.
Oh, and the use of the bear is homophobic – absolutely disgusting, how patriarchial.
I dare say I shall form a committee! We may even draft a communique! Take that Mayor Eichman!
What the heck is that stupid looking thing? What a joke that once great city has become! It most certainly is not the same Toronto in which my father grew up…
Just wondering, when are the muslims in TO going to riot and burn because they are offended that their city is referred to as HOGTOWN. Maybe they haven’t realized that HOGS are pigs.
Oh brother…
All together now:
“Hail! Hail Freedonia!”
Rufus T. Firefly for mayor!
One of the ugliest crests I’ve ever seen. Out of proportion, putrid colours, poor representation of a dog and a squirrel (?). Befitting though for GTA, ah… IGA, ah… NRA… or whatever Tarana calls itself to sound important.
I always thought unity was the greatest strength. I have five diverse fingers on each hand. Each finger has little individual strength. Together they make a fist, which is pretty powerful and greater than the sum of the whole. Then again, I’m lucky that I don’t live in that city.
One of the ugliest crests I’ve ever seen. Out of proportion, putrid colours, poor representation of a dog and a squirrel (?). Befitting though for GTA, ah… IGA, ah… NRA… or whatever Tarana calls itself to sound important.
I always thought unity was the greatest strength. I have five diverse fingers on each hand. Each finger has little individual strength. Together they make a fist, which is pretty powerful and greater than the sum of the whole. Then again, I’m lucky that I don’t live in that city.
Things don’t look good for Toronto if they re-elect the same Dud for Mayor. Even the bowtie, eyebrows guy, LeDrew would be worth a try, he’s been tamed by the failure of his beloved Liberals.
Socialists can make a cesspool out of any community,province or country in one term of office, only fools would allow them a repeat. If Miller gets back his chain of office we know the damage is done, it’s already a hotbed of socialism.
… The city shield is supposed to represent all of us, not just the English speaking minority, I demand that it be translated into Tagalog, American Sign Language, Braile, Esperanto, dislexic, ebonics and all other progressive languages.
…
The TTC has ads that boast that they answer the phone in over 70 languages. Tagalog is one of them, but I’ll have to get back to you on Esperanto and Ebonics. Actually, I should lodge a complaint if they don’t support the latter two.
Stephen: glad you pointed that out!! The eagle certainly is striking a darkly familiar pose. Funny, wasn’t AH also a ‘socialist’?? I’m doing the math here…Hmmm.
Kathy – if you find it that awful maybe you should move to another city.
Kathy come west girl! We need you! Well there appears to be a majority of socialists in Ontario as they vote in Dippers with regularity. Suffer on!
“Kathy come west girl”
There may be an unfortunate counter effect to Alberta’s economic boom. Perhaps the same thing that happened to Toronto, when it went through it’s own boom years starting in the 80’s.
The dregs of society (socialists, muslims), will move to Alberta. In fact, Alberta, in it’s interest to fill jobs and feed the economic beast, may end up making the unhappy decision to lure these types there.
Best to beware of who you elect after Ralph. And keep Toronto in mind as a example of an economic boom gone horribly wrong.
Scientific proof that diversity is, in fact, a weakness and not a strength:
Harvard study paints bleak picture of ethnic diversity
A bleak picture of the corrosive effects of ethnic diversity has been revealed in research by Harvard University’s Robert Putnam, one of the world’s most influential political scientists.
His research shows that the more diverse a community is, the less likely its inhabitants are to trust anyone – from their next-door neighbour to the mayor.
This is a contentious finding in the current climate of concern about the benefits of immigration. Professor Putnam told the Financial Times he had delayed publishing his research until he could develop proposals to compensate for the negative effects of diversity, saying it “would have been irresponsible to publish without that”.
The core message of the research was that, “in the presence of diversity, we hunker down”, he said. “We act like turtles. The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it’s not just that we don’t trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, we don’t trust people who do look like us.”
news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?Feed=FT&Date=20061008&ID=6085419
Irwin Daisy: “The dregs of society (socialists, muslims), will move to Alberta. In fact, Alberta, in it’s interest to fill jobs and feed the economic beast, may end up making the unhappy decision to lure these types there.”
Ho, boy, did you nail that!! Well put!!
Vote Stephen Harper!!
Raymond
I am just waiting for someone else to notice. It is largely a stupid symbol, funny how the cross on the sheild, usually a christian cross has been turned into something you would see at a Leaf’s game.
Those without a sense or respect of history have no problem fooling around with symbols. And in the case of the eagle they have echoed something ugly. Let’s see how long it takes to get noticed.
Kathy – if you find it that awful maybe you should move to another city.
Oh let me try this!
Hey Ayn, if you don’t like Kathy’s posts, maybe you should move to another country.
How’s that?
Wasn’t there a logo that was designed and cost a bundle that was laughed at by those in and out of TO. Now, how much money was spent on this kindergarten drawing. And, who designed it, how long did it take them.
I think a large blank piece of paper was left in the coffee room. Everyone was told to doodle on it at their leisure and this thing is the result.
Next time use talent.Would you buy a Tshirt with this, or a cap. And, if muslims come to alberta in droves they will find we are not so tolerant of their terrorist ways, and they will be offended on a daily basis. They can take it or leave canada.
Matt, you’re touchy.
Oh sure, I try to play along with the “If you don’t like X why don’t you go Y” game, and I’m the one who’s touchy. Sheesh!
Toronto’s slogan should be “Bad roads, we got em” or “Bad Roads our Pride”, the city is looking very down at the heels, whole sections of the city are becoming no go zones.
Okay, Matt. Maybe we should all go somewhere warm. Feels like summer is over…
I live in Toronto, and over all it treats me pretty well. I have complaints, mostly to do with traffic I guess, but not too many.
I hope to avoid seeing this new seal. I do enjoy the diversity, though, I have to say.
“And if muslims come to Alberta in droves they will find we are not so tolerant of their terrorist ways…”
I hope you’re right Mary T. But in the meantime, you might want to work against the western migration of the multi-culti enablers, so that it doesn’t come to that in the first place. Money has a strange way of drawing the non-capitalist hypocrites.
Mary T:…”And, if Muslims come to Alberta in droves they will find we are not so tolerant of their terrorist ways, and they will be offended on a daily basis.”
Mary, in what ways do you expect they would be offended so regularly? Do you mean that they would be offended (and surprised) by the way things are, or do you mean that they might be singled out and treated badly?
If any one every deserved to be singled out…..and treated appropriately!
Ayn: They would be offended by the way things are done, and we could care less about offending them with cartoons, speech, and actions. A few years ago we had a few muslim truckers working on a project. They come into the restaruant where the special was pork chops. They proceeded to ask for the manager, and he promptly told them to go to hell and leave. The packed restaurant all laughed at them as they walked out, tail between their legs.
They never tried it again. Mind you, they left the job in 2 days.
That’s what I mean, no special treatment. Even in Ed and Cal the majority of them have removed their turbans, and some their beards. You still have a few that tried to refuse to take guide dogs but they lost in court.
People promulgate the myth that diverse, multicultuural societies have greater strength than those that are monocultural, but where’s the proof?
Let’s just examine the 20th century and attempt to find examples of “strength through diversity”.
The Austro-Hungarian empire was extremely diverse, yet when confronted with the challenges of WWI it collapsed.
Czarist Russia was another very diverse empire, yet it too succumbed to the external pressures of the war. Its many and varied weak points were already exposed by 1915 as it lumbered like a mastadont in an effort to defend itself. The czarist regiments, much like those of Austria-Hungary, were riddled with strife and ethnic tensions making them all but useless on the battlefield.
Yugoslavia is a more recent example that needs no comment.
Toronto has become the very template for incoherence; its social fractures duct-taped by a boyant economy in which irreconcilable cultural differences remain masked so long, and only so long, as everyone is suspended in a big happy union of consumption.
When the economy tanks…. economies always do….and the unemployment rate climbs into the double digits, making all those cheap imported labourers redundant, then you’ll see just how much strength in diversity there is.
A shining, sparkly tinderbox.
If you follow the US elections, you will notice that a candidate for some office is using TO trash
and the failure of the sitting member to do anything about it. If elected she will stop the TO trash coming into her state. What is any candidate for mayor saying about this, and what are the options. Mind you, if they passed a law that between 3:15 pm and 3.25 pm, all those living in TO have to stop breathing to reduce CO2, and reduce greenhouse gas, wonder who would be in favor, other than the rest of canada.
Pabluski- Excellent post!
Mary T: I’m not sure I understand the storyline exactly. Were the Muslim folks who came in to this restaurant gearing up to protest the fact that pork was on special? My experience has been that such behaviour is certainly not typical. You find bullies in pretty much every corner of the universe… Regarding the “cartoon problem” – I reckon (and would hope) that it represents an isolated incident (unless some local dork is actually targeting and provoking).
With respect to the turbans, do you think that the Muslims who actualy have removed them ended up doing so in response to overt racism? (I hope it’s not quite that bad out there for them…)
What a fun thread!
maryT wonders, about TO trash: “What is any candidate for mayor saying about this?”
Thanks for caring, maryT! We bought ourselves a big ol’ dump down the 401, so there’s not much left to say.
Real Conservative states: “Diversity, sounds like a disease to me.”
Always knew there was a philosophical justification of inbreeding.
KS writes, in the original post: Toronto’s got “a dumb new city seal”. Stephen wondered: “Let’s see how long it takes to get noticed.” Dumb though it may be, the seal was introduced 1998. By the way, OT but related: those ‘keys to Toronto’ someone’s selling on eBay? Don’t buy ’em! We changed the locks.
“I have five diverse fingers on each hand,” writes Fiumara, proving someone was awake in Grade 1. “Together they make a fist.” This assumes that one of those fingers is not like the others: i.e., opposable.
Stephen says: “the cross on the sheild, usually a christian cross has been turned into something you would see at a Leaf’s game.” We call that a ‘T’ down here. Since it’s such an easy and inoffensive symbol to make with your hands, we’ve also banned handshakes; flashing a ‘T’ is the new official greeting.
Just wanted to clear up those misconceptions etc. Everything else written here about Toronto is absolutely true. It’s “a example of an economic boom gone horribly wrong” with “its social fractures duct-taped by a boyant economy”.
Stay away, here be monsters!
So I guess that woman candidate in Michegan did do something about the TO trash coming into the state so it will no longer be an election issue there. Thanks for the update. Maybe you should tell Jon Stewart so he quits running the debate on his program.