LETTER: Reconsider rebranding

To the editor,

Fellow Dartmouthians … the sky is not falling!

As a proud resident of Dartmouth and citizen of Halifax, I must say I am a little surprised by the overhyped concern and explosive vehemence of those opposing the Halifax branding rollout to communities within HRM. Heaven forbid that our Halifax mayor, a Westphal boy, suddenly choose to champion a movement to remove any Dartmouth branding on signs put up in Westphal since the 1961 amalgamation with Dartmouth!

We can all be assured that the community identity and special character of Dartmouth and its many communal neighbourhoods is under no threat of disappearing because of the current branding actions of those “piranhas in Halifax” … no matter how conspiratorial the plot nor how “hideous” some feel the new brand is. Note too that according to Wikipedia, the short form ‘Halifax’ is a perfectly legitimate replacement for the longer legal designation Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM).

Now, if HRM council was truly bent on erasing all appearances and all utterances of the name Dartmouth and banning any future use of the name, then we could all be a little more concerned. Since this is not the case, The simple advice for those fervent supporters of Dartmouth … why not erect twice as many signs reading ‘Welcome to Dartmouth’ for every single HRM-owned sign that removes the community name … or encourage residents to wear “I Love Dartmouth” buttons and T-shirts … or promote Dartmouth as a place to live, shop and eat in all advertising and social media. There are lots of proactive ways to elevate the Dartmouth name as opposed to denigrating the new Halifax logo. Indeed many communities around the world can claim to have become better known than the city they call home … Hollywood, the Bronx, Mississauga, Westminster and the Vatican, to name a few.

To be fair I do agree with some of the concerns expressed in recent letters to the editor of the Dartmouth Tribune (a Halifax owned paper, yet named for our fair community). The details of the brand roll-out across HRM were more than a little fuzzy and the implications not at all well communicated. The lack of Dartmouth-side images and tourism attractions in Destination Halifax and Nova Scotia Tourism marketing is also a notable and credible grievance that should be addressed by our councillors and MLAs.

And remember, without its strong communities a city is spiritless. So take pride in the community of Dartmouth and its major role in supporting the city of Halifax, and try to be more forgiving and understanding of change not intended to divide us, but to strengthen us all, both communally and economically.

Colin Mason

Dartmouth