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A regional municipality divided against itself cannot stand. But that’s exactly what HRM is dealing with as a chorus of Dartmouth citizens raise their voices and take to the Internet in protest against some flags and a couple signs.
Dartmouth—a former city across the harbour that Matt Mays sung about—has always been one of the region’s most closely-knit, and compassionate communities. It may be nicknamed the “Dark Side,” but Dartmouth was always a shining light.
Still, like a prettier, richer and more important big sister, Halifax always gets the glory. Which maybe explains why almost 20 years after amalgamation, some Dartmouth citizens are now straight up calling for widespread civil disobedience over HRM’s new logo being plastered on traditionally-Dartmouth signs.
Various extremist cells have recently sprung up on social media that are vigorously connecting the dots on a conspiracy many others do not care about: that HRM’s government is trying to erase Dartmouth’s identity.
The costly new logo, which was adopted last summer from Revolve, has been popping up more and more—from Burnside signage, to flying above Alderney Landing. It’s provoked no shortage of anger and poorly-executed arguments.
Simultaneously, HRM is being accused of dismantling our sister city’s proud heritage through steps such as not labelling “Dartmouth” on every possible Google Maps zoom level.
But the petty arguments over perceived slights thankfully aren’t being contained solely within the realm online comments. The war on Dartmouth has also taken up a surprising amount of media attention and political debate.
Halifax South Downtown councillor Waye Mason attempted to explain the new branding rules, which only served to fuel the refinery fires of Halifax hate. No small portion of that criticism is coming from his fellow councillor across the water, Gloria McCluskey.
“Stay over there Waye, and look after your side of the harbour,” McCluskey trash-talked on News95.7’s Sheldon MacLeod Show.
Dartmouth’s last mayor has been leading the critical charge against Halifax’s signage efforts. She’s presented a 2,000 signature petition to council, and spoken out in the media about the poor stupid children who will forever be illiterate thanks to Phil Otto.
“That logo’s even confusing to school kids,” she told MacLeod last week, “young kids who are learning to spell.”
McCluskey was one of only two votes last year against approving the new logo’s administrative order (David Hendsbee also voted against, while Reg Rankin wasn’t present). Though two week before that she and the rest of council unanimously approved moving forward with Revolve’s branding strategy (a vote Mason was absent for).
A year later, and McCluskey and other proud Dartmouth citizens are infuriated that outsiders would claim their land and change their identity without even having a vote.
“How would you feel if you worked hard to create something and then had the name changed?” McCluskey asks.
“Um…” replied thousands of years of Mi’kmaq culture.
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Outdated though it was, at least no one argued over HRM’s old logo (that we recall). Created in 1997 by Lou Cable, the logo’s four “waves” were meant to represent each of the municipal units combined in amalgamation. Maybe a symbolic wave is better than nothing when it comes to representing Dartmouth’s history?
Look, it’s easy to dismiss this beef as unimportant compared to the very real problems this super city is facing. Problems like who’s better: north end or south end?
See? We can be such dismissive little scamps on this side of the harbour.
Which is ultimately why—along with sheer practical navigation purposes—Dartmouth will never fully disappear. Fighting against Halifax is a vital part of its underdog identity. If the past couple of weeks are any indication, Dartmouth’s proud heritage of hating its smug cousin across the harbour will be with us for many, many years to come.
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This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2015.
Poor old Gloria… it’s those damn train whistles (she has supersonic hearing); they are the cause of her real upset.
Look kiddies: things change – no more beating women, cars runs on batteries, we get old and lose our minds…
But lynch mobs are back, so hang in there. Maybe Peter Kelly will decide to return and then the fun can begin again!
So good:
“A year later, and McCluskey and other proud Dartmouth citizens are infuriated that outsiders would claim their land and change their identity without even having a vote.
“How would you feel if you worked hard to create something and then had the name changed?” McCluskey asks.
“Um…” replied thousands of years of Mi’kmaq culture.”
so um canada is on the brink of a massive recession because of plummeting oil prices, our city and province are complete and absolute messes for a variety of reasons. And THIS is what everyone is up in arms about….
If you’re travelling anywhere outside of this province and are asked where you are from, a typical exchange that will take place will be something like this.
“Where are you from?”.
“Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.”
“Where’s that?”
“It’s near Halifax.”
GET OVER IT !
When any of us travel to that Big city in Upper Canada (you know the one with the big needle building)…well we tell folks we are going to Toronto. Do we say I’m going to Scarborough, or Etobicoke? Nope we are going to Toronto. When we land at Pearson airport do we say we are going to Mississauga? Nope we are going to Toronto. Get over it people. Halifax is a geographical destination…Dartmouth will always be there, so will Bedford, Fall River, Cole Harbour and Hammonds Plains. Just like Scarborough and Etobicoke and other districts of Toronto…they are still there too, just ask anyone who lives in these areas. I would prefer to make a bigger argument to get a bus to Rainbow Haven Beach, or find ways to train our Council members to think “Intelligently” rather than make false complaints to the City on behalf of unknown citizens….This is a great city. I live in Dartmouth in the municipality of Halifax. I don’t need a sign to tell me that.
The link out to the piece “not labelling “Dartmouth” on every possible Google Maps zoom level” is not working. Google search isn’t getting me there. Please re-link when you have a moment.
If you’re going to use the new logo at least make sure it adheres to brand standards! http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew…
Jacob, a bit of misinformation being spread on your part. I am not aware of anyone blaming Waye Mason for the signage debacle, but will concede his arrogant attitude and misrepresentation of the facts made him quite unpopular and he has been called out on many of the erroneous statements he made. Your references to the ‘extremist cells’ is a bit over the top Just mostly citizens of Dartmouth venting their frustration at the lack of sensitivity of the HRM leadership and re-branding of Dartmouth to Halifax process. Dartmouth signage has been changed, ‘Dartmouth’ removed from some signs, and ‘Halifax’ added. For instance, since when did Halifax become the City of Lakes. Well 2 new signs in Dartmouth’s Burnside Industrial Park now say ‘Halifax’ City of Lakes. Now, if you are from Dartmouth you might feel your identity is threatened with this type of signage. These two signs are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.
There are many issues and concerns happening world-wide that have more serious consequences than the re-branding in HRM issue, but it would be a mistake to assume those issues are not important to those who are also expressing and venting their frustration to what appears to be the Dartmouth name change and apparent loss of Dartmouth’s identity. Kudos to First Nations communities for their efforts and successes in re-vitalizing their respective identities/culture which were stolen from them. We could learn much from them.
There are some over reactions in this comment section. Were we supposed to take this article seriously?
I don’t understand how it is smug to say “here is what is totally incorrect in the change.org petition.” It was wrong, it has been edited but is still wrong. I stand by my blog post, which is all about facts and policy and stays well away from personal attacks.
Ignore her Waye; you have my blessings!
You have to admit that row of flags on the D^artmouth waterfront at Alderney that say H^lif^x look awfully darn ridiculous to every one who knows it is Dartmouth. We’re talking laughing stock ridiculous.
This sort of rebranding works better in larger cities like Toronto, for instance. This area is just way too small to achieve this renaming agenda successfully. No matter, it will be shoved down our throats regardless of how much we disagree. That’s politics.
Two things I’ve noticed with this mess:
1) No one seems to be aware of the fact that there is no such thing as the City of Halifax anymore. The “community” of Halifax is also part of the Halifax Regional Municipality, just as the communities of Dartmouth, Beford, Sackville, etc, are. We can’t become part of Halifax as far as the community goes, we’re all just part of the greater whole that is the Halifax region. This logo, is just a simplified version of the municipality’s name. They dropped the ‘regional municipality” part to make it less cumbersome on signage. The branding project last year polled citizens and it was a pretty big majority that wanted the simplified just “Halifax” as our brand. If you voted against that, oh well, that’s democracy.
2) No Dartmouth signs had the word “Dartmouth” removed from them. All these signs that have been changed had the old lighthouse logo on them. The new logo simply replaced that. True, in the case of the City of Lakes Industrial Park sign, it does look wrong, but it doesn’t change the fact that the sign never said “Dartmouth” on it previously.
All signs that say Dartmouth, such as “Welcome to Dartmouth” coming from Cole Harbour, or “Welcome to Downtown Dartmouth” by Sullivan’s Pond, have not, and will not be changed.
As much as everyone hates the new logo, I’m thinking that it’s obviously more noticeable than the old one, because it certainly seems that very few even noticed the old logo was even on signs; they’re making this assumption that they had previously said “Dartmouth” when they actually hadn’t.
I belong to one of the FB groups where this topic has been discussed (got out of the 2nd group, where it was overly discussed) and some of those people are very overzealous. One person seems rather convinced that Halifax City Council is going to somehow change not only Dartmouth to Halifax, but that the entire province is going to be renamed by Halifax City Council.
As for “Halifax City of Lakes”, the sign, as mentioned above, is confusing. It actually is for the “City of Lakes Business Park”…and has the “Bold” new Halifax logo above it. It’s not saying that Halifax is the City of Lakes.
(we have two business parks in that area – Burnside Industrial and the City of Lakes Business Park)
Everyone needs to relax, swill back a few Dartmouth Heinekens (Moosehead green) and chill the fuck out.
Great so if this is such a non issue let’s rebrand Dartmouth and remove the Halifax flag and the word halifax from many of the old parks etc in Halifax and see what people have to say then.