Great and not-so great Canadian city mottos thread

[MolsonExport]

Okotoks: There are a number of things to do in Okotoks.
Toronto: Diversity is our Strength
Drummondville: "Fortem posce animum" (i.e., Asks for a strong soul)
Laval: "Unité, progrès, grandeur" (i.e., Our Clocktower is Bigger and Uglier than your Clocktower).
Calgary: Onward (ho?).
Red Deer: Education, Industry and Progress
Winnipeg: UNUM CUM VIRTUTE MULTORUM (something to do with cum?)
Maple Creek: Where Present is Past.
London: The Forest City.

[Denscity]

Castlegar: Haec Lumina Numquam Errantiae These lights never wander. I wonder what that means.

Also "Crossroads of the Kootenays".

[Acajack]

Montréal

Concordia salus

Salvation through harmony

[Acajack]

Gatineau

Fortunae meae, multorum faber

Artisan of my own destiny, and of that of many

[WhipperSnapper]

Vaughan used The City above Toronto for 20 years. Certainly the double entendre is among the worst mottos ever in modern times (of course, I'm not unbiased either)

[Acajack]

Quebec City

Don de Dieu feray valoir

The Don de Dieu was Champlain's ship when he arrived to found the city.

It's old French but it basically means cherish the gift of the Don de Dieu. Or God. Or honour the gift thou has received.

[SignalHillHiker]

All of ours are awful.

St. John’s: Avancez! (Go Forward); the marketing one is City of Legends
Harbour Grace: Quaerite Prime Regnum Dei (Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God)
Mount Pearl: Omnia Ad Dei Gloriam! (All things for the glory of God)
Dildo: Our Name Will Never Change!
Corner Brook: Our Spirit... Your Success!

One good one, given its at the mental centre of the island:

Grand Falls-Windsor: Perfectly Centered

[J.OT13]

Ottawa: Advance - En Avant

Last year, when we reached 1 million, the City created a new slogan (unsure if that's officially the new motto): Canada in one city - Le Canada en dans une ville

This new slogan/motto is on all Welcome to Ottawa signs.

[Acajack]

Some people might remember these ads for Montreal featuring conductor Charles Dutoit and the OSM. Capped by the slogan La fierté a une ville. Roughly translated: Pride has found its hometown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsImGvMmAEU

They also ran them in English with the slogan A City: call it proud. Which isn't exactly the same as the French.

[Acajack]

In terms of slogans, Ottawa used to have "technically beautiful".

Gatineau's slogan is currently "pour la vie".

[Innsertnamehere]

Vaughan used to be: "The City above Toronto"




Hamilton: " A city of many communities"

[esquire]

Some of the examples strike me as marketing slogans as opposed to official civic mottos.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Dildo: Our Name Will Never Change!

Originally Posted by Acajack

In terms of slogans, Ottawa used to have "technically beautiful".

These can't be real, can they?

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

All of ours are awful.

St. John’s: Avancez! (Go Forward); the marketing one is City of Legends
Harbour Grace: Quaerite Prime Regnum Dei (Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God)
Mount Pearl: Omnia Ad Dei Gloriam! (All things for the glory of God)
Dildo: Our frame Will Never Change!
Corner Brook: Our Spirit... Your Success!

One good one, given its at the mental centre of the island:

Grand Falls-Windsor: Perfectly Centered

Fixed for you.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Some people might remember these ads for Montreal featuring conductor Charles Dutoit and the OSM. Capped by the slogan La fierté a une ville. Roughly translated: Pride has found its hometown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsImGvMmAEU

They also ran them in English with the slogan A City: call it proud. Which isn't exactly the same as the French.

Not the same. In fact, your translation "Pride has found its hometown" sounds much better than the one they used, which I recall vividly from my Montreal years.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Not the same. In fact, your translation "Pride has found its hometown" sounds much better than the one they used, which I recall vividly from my Montreal years.

“Pride has found its hometown” sounds pretty dopey. One imagines Pride riding the rails with its rucksack looking vainly for the home it barely remembers, then, just as all hope seems lost, erupting into tears of joy as some dumpy old town, looking not unlike Lio’s beloved Maple Creek, finally comes into view. “La fierté a une ville” was a nice slogan, one of those things that Montreal always seemed to get right, but I don't think it translates.

[kwoldtimer]

Kitchener's motto is unexciting but it's a true reflection of the place - Ex industria prosperitas

When I was a kid "Keep Kitchener Klean as a Kitchen" was the motto you'd see on garbage trucks. Beyond corny but, at that time, it was a town where people scrubbed their driveways and sidewalks.

[Prometheus]

Vancouver

"By Sea Land and Air We Prosper"



History of Vancouver's Coat of Arms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Vancouver

[Andy6]

Winnipeg had "Commerce, Prudence, Industry" until 1972, when the amalgamated city adopted "Unum cum virtute multorum", "One with the strength of many" to refer to the 13 municipalities that had been united in the new city. It is more or less the same sentiment as the U.S.A.'s "E pluribus unum".

[MonctonRad]

Moncton's motto is Resurgo (to rise again).

This is an allusion to the fact that Moncton, although initially incorporated in 1855, lost it's civic charter in 1862 after the collapse of the shipbuilding industry in the city. Moncton reincorporated in 1875, due to the strength of the newly established railway industry, and adopted Resurgo as it's motto as an indication of it's rebirth.

Resurgo took on new meaning after Moncton was sucker kicked in the balls in the 1980s, with the closure of the CNR shops, the Eaton's catalogue warehouse and CFB Moncton, resulting in the loss of at least 8,000 jobs, and the decimation of the local economy. By the mid 1990s, the economy rebounded strongly and Moncton began to grow like gangbusters, and the city is now the largest in NB, and the second largest in the Maritime provinces.