City of Dartmouth at the centre of a branding battle

Dartmouth is once again the City of Dartmouth, at least according to a group of residents.

“We see that it’s time for us to stand up for our community identity and make sure Dartmouth’s name is defended,”Warren Wesson said on Monday. Wesson is the spokesperson of a group also named the City of Dartmouth.

He said the aim isn’t to separate Dartmouth from the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) but instead to get the community its own official city branding.

The group includes Bruce Hetherington, a former councillor.

The issue was reignited when a sign at Sullivan’s Pond in Dartmouth was changed to simply “HALIFAX” as part of the HRM’s rebranding plan.

View image in full screen

“It just aggravates the people,” said Dartmouth Centre councillor Gloria McCluskey.

She said she is fine with the simpler name being used for national and international marketing purposes but not for local signage.

“We’ll accept amalgamation but then don’t come putting Halifax signs up in Dartmouth,” said McCluskey.

Wesson said he wants future signs to carry the preferred name.

“It would be a shame to lose Dartmouth to the history books,” he said.

Jack Novack, who teaches local government at Dalhousie University, said Dartmouth can be considered a community but changing it to become a city would be difficult.

“Promoting community identity and promoting community cohesiveness, and using it (as a) way to engage people in a political conversation is all very good things, but that’s quite different and apart from being a legal entity, which I think, in the current climate, is probably a non-starter,” said the professor.

View image in full screen

Wesson said he hopes he can convince other councillors to join his campaign.

“Halifax uses the Halifax brand, we would like to use the City of Dartmouth brand. We are using the City of Dartmouth brand; we’re going ahead with it anyway,” he added.