Peterborough does live outside the ordinary

Peterborough council recently decided to spend $77,000.00 to get the branding and marketing expertise of local company BrandHealth to market the city. But council has now twice rejected the company’s suggestions for a new city logo!

Some councillors have suggested we stick with the current and tired “Its a Natural,” a vague and meaningless logo that could be used for a nudist colony.

Some citizens were apparently unhappy with the second logo so it’s shelved. Who they are and why their opinions count so much is not reported.

Coun. Dan McWilliams is right: the city needs to “move ahead!” And this citizen, for one, thinks “Live Outside the Ordinary” is a very clever and original marketing tagline.

After all, being “ordinary” is so easy to achieve, primarily because it exists in so many places and it’s safe: it’s a place where nothing happens, nothing changes, nothing moves and nothing excites so, worst of all, nothing grows.

But to live “outside the ordinary” is to be different; edgier, hipper, progressive, vibrant, savvy, avant-garde, forward-thinking, forward-looking and forward-moving.

Consider our recent history: this is a city that elected a Muslim woman as our MP, a city whose university is developing a research and innovation park committed to environmentally focused, forward-looking and forward-thinking green technology. Our university, in turn, embraces and supports an extraordinary local young man named Adam Noble, who builds a new, exciting and environmentally-positive tech enterprise aimed at curing the future of our land.

Our city is also an exciting centre for innovative art as well: several venues and companies stage original and high-calibre live theatre; many musicians like Serena Ryder, the Weber Brothers, Jimmy Bowskill and more, making original music; many nationally celebrated local visual artists continue to create here; lots of brave and experimental entrepreneurs develop an Innovation Cluster downtown; many social justice activists do inventive things like re-purpose an old convent for mixed, affordable housing or fundraise to build a new Brock Mission; culture warriors work to build a new canoe museum and improve our beautiful art gallery.

Our legendary hockey team sends more players to the NHL than any other city. And for more than 50 years, has any city had more national lacrosse championships than Peterborough?

These are not ordinary happenings and they are not achieved by ordinary people!

Being “ordinary” will mean being left behind in an era of hyperactive economic, cultural and social transition.

Calling ourselves “extra-ordinary” is destined to become either pretentious or a unbearable burden!

But challenging ourselves to “live outside the ordinary?” Now that just might be an exciting place to live!

Jerry Allen Wolsely St.