Want to get somebody riled up? Stomp on his or
her flag. There are serious flags like your country’s ensign and
lesser flags like those for provinces, cities, football teams or
retailers, which act more like product placements than big
ideas.
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| name="valign" top > ATKINS |
No one is going to war, flying a Toys “R” Us
flag.
Actually, running a flag up the pole in Quebec in
the last 10 years has been a product placement program at some cost
to the country and certain politicians (see Sponsorship
Scandal).
There are seasonal flags like the Toronto Maple
Leafs flag that flies until the second round of the Stanley Cup
playoffs most years, and white flags that are presented when you
surrender.
Flags speak when they are at half-mast to
indicate mourning, or brought out during a car race to put things
on hold.
Flags are symbols and when you are playing with
symbols you need to travel with care.
In October, John Rowswell, the mayor of Sault
Ste. Marie, decided it was time to talk about a flag for Northern
Ontario. This stuff is not for the faint of heart.
The occasion was the Mayor’s Luncheon at the
annual Northern Ontario Business Awards gala dinner (our 18th),
that was held in the Sault.
I’m sorry to say I had to leave the luncheon
before the fireworks started.
Vic Power, mayor of Timmins, thought it was a
complete waste of time and was happy to tell anyone who would
listen. Lynn Peterson, mayor of Thunder Bay, thought it was sending
the wrong message. Rowswell, who is determined and also has a thick
skin, seemed unperturbed by the hornet’s
nest, but it probably won’t be brought up again
any time soon.
From John’s point of view, he and the mayors of
Northern Ontario’s larger communities have been talking about
branding the North for a couple of
years now, so why not just get ourselves a
flag?
I don’t think it is such a bad idea to have a
flag, but I agree we could waste a lot of valuable time talking
about it.
To want a flag is to want recognition. That is a
legitimate aspiration for Northern Ontario.
To get to the heart of the matter, you have to
ask the question, would it make sense for Northern Ontario to be a
separate province?
The answer is yes, it does make sense to think
about being a separate province if you live in Northern Ontario,
but it makes little sense if you don’t. It won’t happen.
Is it better to be a have-not province like
Prince Edward Island (we have more people and territory than
P.E.I.) or be a “have-not” part of a have province like
Ontario?
Hard to say.
The problems don’t change. The Maritimes have
depopulated about as fast as we have, so there doesn’t appear to be
any great advantage on the face of it. The difference is that you
have the opportunity to be in charge of natural resources, which is
the source of our wealth.
Of course, if Stephen Harper and Paul Martin have
anything to say about it, provinces will soon control almost
everything.
We are entering the era of asymmetrical
federalism. Check synonyms for asymmetrical in your ever-faithful
thesaurus and you find such comforting words as irregular,
lopsided, uneven and unbalanced. The question is what does being a
province now imply?
My own view is that the greatest danger we face
is someone might wave a wand and make us a province.
Can you imagine if we had 90 days to pick a
capital city? I don’t need to tell you. It would be ugly. Be
careful what you wish for.
But I digress.
Becoming a province is a non-starter. Let’s focus
on the flag.
John, the way to get a flag is to employ an old
space-selling technique in the newspaper business.
In the newspaper business, you don’t ask the
client if he/she wants to advertise.
You give the client two great creative ideas and
ask which one they prefer.
If you want a flag, design two great flags and
send copies to each municipality across the North and ask them to
choose their favourite.
When the votes are in, report which one was
selected.
There. You’ll have a flag without having to
answer the messy question of whether or not anyone wants one.
Michael Atkins is president of Northern
Ontario Business Ltd. He can be reached by e-mail to[email protected]
.
