I can’t help that it irks me. It just does. The slogan “debate… for the city of Edmonton has made a mockery of an important aspect of Edmontonian identity. Today the issue of reviving the City of Champions slogan was brought up by city council and was summarily voted down.
I grew up in this city. I’m from here. I was born at a time when the city’s sports franchises dominated their leagues. The Oilers became the last great dynasty of the NHL on the backs of Hall of Fame legends. The Eskimos were perennially winning or challenging for Grey Cups. The city had a AAA baseball team, The Trappers, which brought in the highest level of ball you can see outside of the MLB. There is no question that in this era and under those conditions the slogan “City of Champions… was allowed to develop.
To deny this would be wrong and also unnecessary. The city in the 70’s and 80’s hosted a lot of winning at high level sport. Edmonton's premier outdoor sporting venue, Commonwealth Stadium, was finished in 1978 to host the Commonwealth Games. Northlands Coliseum opened in 1974 and helped turn the dream of having an NHL team into a reality. Until very recently the city’s mass transit line ensured access to these sites but not to major destinations like Whyte Avenue, West Edmonton Mall, and NAIT (and only NAIT has received a line thus far). So, yes, sport played a massive role in Edmonton adopting the slogan to represent the city, just as sport played a huge role in major city decisions like urban planning.
However it was conceived, though, it took on new meaning after the Tornado of 1987. After Black Friday, “The City of Champions… was re-defined to cover the spirit of the people as they rebuilt and came together in the wake of the Tornado. It was about the citizens who made the city great. From this point on it was clear that this slogan was more than sports. Being a champion was not in reference to owning a literal prize or trophy, it was about a championship mentality to be the best and to overcome. That was the identity of Edmonton. We were the city of champions in every possible meaning of the phrase.
At least, we were until Edmonton City Council decided we weren’t. Instead of debating how to better promote the ways in which Edmonton is a leader in the province and the world, the city council simply debated whether the city was even a champion at all. Determining that the city of Edmonton was now a city of losers unfit to hold the title of “City of Champions… was an easy one for them. All it took was to ignore every level of sport that wasn’t the NHL and every initiative championed by the people of Edmonton. With little to no public input they stripped the slogan from the entryways into the city.
For the vast majority of my life I lived in the city of Champions. Now I do not. I haven’t moved, but the city’s council no longer believes in the champion spirit of the city and they believe that you shouldn’t either. It was a meaningless tagline about sports anyway. We are in a post-tagline era, said Mayor Don Iveson as he tightens his bike helmet a little more. Councilor Michael Oshry mocked the “City of Champions… as being not materially different from “City McCityFace…. Of course, he’s not seeking re-election so his only lasting impact on the city is going to be as the champion of removing the champion slogan. There’s a bit of irony.
Do I wish that instead of taking the sign down they had found different ways to highlight how Edmonton has championed things like Higher Education, Arts, Charity, and Environmental Initiatives? Yes, I do. I wish that we had been more proud of what we accomplished as a city.
But that stuff is for champions.
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