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Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian
The HRM brand before the change was a joke... if you like that sort of thing, you're not the type of person the branding is trying to attract.
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Beyond kitschy, it was actively confusing to a lot of people. In a few instances I saw national publications refer to Halifax as "Halifax Regional Municipality" or, more cryptically, "HRM". Lists would say "Toronto, Montreal, HRM". People didn't know what this thing was or why it was any different from all the other cities. The fact that Halifax has different neighbourhoods and satellite towns does not make it unique in any way. All that's unusual is the technical extent of the municipality but that is irrelevant and confusing to people who don't actually live in the area. Using "HRM" outside of the region is silly.
Even locals get confused by HRM stuff when they say Halifax is uniquely spread out or is somehow an abstract construct rather than a "real" city. This is not true at all. Halifax's settlement patterns aren't even unique within the region. The metropolitan area for Fredericton constructed by Statistics Canada (CMA) is about the same size as the comparable Halifax CMA, but the population is 1/4. Edmonton, Ottawa, and a bunch of others are the same. They are all defined in the same way and they all look similar. Halifax doesn't stand out in terms of the extent of the developed metropolitan area, and that area does not include more than would be included in other cities. The only real difference is that the metro area has one municipality whereas others tend to be broken up into multiple municipalities.
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You wouldn't hear somebody in Queen's NY rail against the fact that they "aren't from NY". This type of thinking gets exaggerated at council too.
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I think the confusion is that there are different audiences. To a tourist from another country, the distinction between Halifax and Dartmouth, let alone Sheet Harbour, is completely irrelevant. To a local, the external branding is irrelevant. These two concerns should be kept separate. Unfortunately for a while city politicians didn't seem to really grasp this.
The "Halifax is no Amsterdam" sentiment seems either disngenuous or confused to me, at least insofar as it's combined with the attitude that places like Dartmouth should get more attention. Dartmouth is no Halifax, and Musquodoboit Harbour is no Dartmouth. There is no magical "world-class" cutoff either. Cities should all make sure that they have some sort of coherent external presentation and a good reputation, and if they have tourism potential as the Halifax area does they should try to promote that.