across the wire

A mere two days ago, Manitoba was just "Friendly Manitoba." Now we as Manitobans have a new motto/slogan: "Spirited Energy." A recent blogger friend of mine at "Spinster and Lunatic" shared her feelings about the new image and the city has been flooded with radios blaring every Tom Dick and Harry's opinion about it saying "bring back Friendly Manitoba!" The problem with that is while it does appear on our license plates, it is not and has not been our official motto/logo. I believe our old logo was the word Manitoba with a bison behind it something like the one above. It defiantly looks more classy on official documents and pins rather than "Friendly Manitoba." The picture posted here is found on the Government of Manitoba websites.

CBC has been covering this new $2.1 million investment into a new image and logo for Manitoba. You can check out all the hard work that amount of money has brought us here. Basically, it is the slogan "Spirited Energy" and a word logo "Manitoba" with all the letter connecting to each other. Looking at the website, the it is hard to tell what the slogan is about until you start to read some of the text and watch the 2 minute video. The overwhelming message is "Spirited Energy" is about the people that make up Manitoba. Hmmm, when I saw it, I can't I saw myself represented. I was slightly disappointed that the image of prairie farming was a quiet voice, Aboriginal art and history were limited to the video, and it was hard to find First Nations people represented on the website. What I see in the logo/slogan is: Manitoba Hydro, young people, and business. These are the dominant voices and images that I interpret through the art, video and logo. I am sure that those three things are very important, but not very representative of the essence of the Manitoba population.

There are defiantly people on both sides of the fence many who love it and many who don't. Does this new image capture the essence of the people of Manitoba like the website claims? Does it represent our diverse population? Which side of the fence do you fall on and why?