Affordable housing and taxation may be issues that are top of mind for many voters around Metro Vancouver but one topic has emerged as an “only in New West” question in the 2022 election: Do you support New Westminster city council’s decision to eliminate the Royal City moniker and crown logo from the city’s branding?
In July, city council approved a motion by Mayor Jonathan Cote to begin the process of updating the city’s logo and phasing out the use of the “Royal City” moniker in its branding. The motion would also see the city develop a plan to engage with the community in the development “of a new brand identity that is inclusive and allows for collective pride in our city.”
“We are a community that has many histories that need to be celebrated and focused upon,” Cote said at the time. “We have many histories that existed well before we were a city that need to be reflected … in the work we do.”
When presenting his motion, Cote said the city had discussed moving away from the Royal City branding many years ago, but decided against it after hearing from community members who were concerned about the plan. He said the community has changed a lot since those conversations took place, and he didn’t think “the conversation is going to be the same” in 2022, as there’s a growing recognition the city is on a path toward reconciliation and the community is ready to have a discussion about new branding.
The motion’s preamble says New Westminster is committed to building a community that is equitable, inclusive and welcoming. It goes on to say that the city embraces reconciliation as a path forward to charting a new relationship with Indigenous people and Nations.
Council’s decision to update the City of New Westminster’s logo and phase out the use of the Royal City moniker in branding has been raised at several of the mayoral meetings during the 2022 campaign. Here’s what New Westminster’s three mayoral candidates have had to say on the issue.
Patrick Johnstone
Patrick Johnstone, the Community First New West mayoral candidate and current city councillor, supported Cote’s motion.
“I voted for that motion because it's about having a conversation with our community about what our corporate brand is and what we're telling our partners, both provincially and regionally, about who we are,” he said. “And I recognize that it's a difficult conversation for some people. It's a challenging conversation, but I've never shrunk away from having those challenging conversations with the community. And I think that it can be a positive conversation.”
Johnstone stressed that even though the City of New Westminster is moving away from the Royal City moniker, that does not mean residents and organizations can’t continue to use the term. He said a city’s corporate branding is different than a city’s moniker.
“The easiest example for you to think of is the Big Apple. Everyone knows what the Big Apple is. If you go to the city of New York, if you look on the website, the Big Apple doesn't appear anywhere on the website,” he said. “The corporate brand is something different than what we call the city.”
Johnstone said the city’s corporate brand is a different conversation than the city’s moniker.
“The moniker of the city is something that belongs to the people of this community,” he said. “And we can have a conversation about that. The corporate brand is a separate discussion.”
Johnstone said the city has talked to Indigenous peoples about the city’s corporate branding.
“We have staff, Indigenous relations staff inside the city, who are actually part of this conversation and part of decision making, and they are helping us guide our path to have a respectful conversation about this very, very sensitive topic,” he said.
With many important issues facing the city, including homelessness and the climate crisis, Johnstone said he’s surprised this topic is taking up so much time.
Johnstone said the city hasn’t been using Royal City in its corporate branding for a while.
Chuck Puchmayr
Independent mayoral candidate and current councillor Chuck Puchmayr said he was the only council member who voted against Cote’s motion. At that meeting, he joked that Cote had left council with “a nice parting grenade” before the election.
When considering the motion, Puchmayr said he thought some of the city’s branding that featured a big golden crowns was “a little bit over the top” and said he’s supported “softening” the Royal City part of the branding. But he opposed consideration of Cote’s motion without getting public input.
Puchmayr said he’s received many “emotional” emails from residents whose families have lived in the city for generations.
“The hurt and the anxiety that this caused was completely unnecessary,” he said.
If elected mayor, Puchmayr said he wants to bring back the “notice of motion” procedure, where council members serve a notice of motion at one meeting but it doesn’t get discussed until the next meeting – giving the public an opportunity to learn about what’s being proposed and provide input before it’s approved.
Before deciding whether to stop using the Royal City moniker and crown in the city’s official branding, Puchmayr said the city should have consulted with the 17 First Nations that have a jurisdictional claim to New Westminster.
“Let's engage with them. Let's sit down with them,” he said. “Let's sit down with the, what I call the generations of first settlers, people that are related to the first settlers of New Westminster. They have rights too. It would be wonderful to put those two groups together and talk about the impacts and the hurt, and the go-forward on how we can have a resolve where we can have both cultures represented and we can still have some respect.”
Ken Armstrong
Ken Armstrong, the New West Progressives mayoral candidate, said the motion showed that council decided “it is not going to be the Royal City” and would subsequently consult with the community about what the city’s branding should be.
“I say they got that order wrong,” he said.
Looking at the issue through the lens of reconciliation, Armstrong said Indigenous people should have been involved in the decision.
“First of all, you don't make a decision about Indigenous peoples or other racialized communities or other equity-seeking groups without engaging those people,” he said. “And secondly, they need to actually be at the table, right? … This decision didn't do that.”
Armstrong said he received an email from a representative of Kwantlen First Nation, one of the 17 First Nations with connections to New Westminster, who said there's a history in their language that this territory (pre-colonization) was known as Seyem, which translate to “royal” in English.
“So, for at least the Kwantlen people, that term royal city is actually a marker to their history,” he said. “It has been called the royal area long before colonization.”
Armstrong said one of the people involved in drafting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action has said that tearing statues down statues and renaming places can be counterproductive and can set back the cause of reconciliation.
“The outrage in a community about changing the name, set the cause of reconciliation back,” he said at an all-candidates meeting. “So, if elected, we would rescind the motion, we would prioritize – look at the financial priority of the need for changing the brand. And in the right time, at the reasonable cost, we will engage the consultation first and respect the wishes of the citizens on this point.”
