Council to reconsider City of Champions slogan

City council is resurrecting a debate — and possibly old highway signs — as councillors ponder whether Edmonton should be synonymous with the slogan City of Champions.

Coun. Tony Caterina is calling for a reinstatement of the phrase, which was splashed across wooden signs welcoming people to Edmonton for decades. The signs were axed in 2014, but will be under debate once again at city council May 30.

“This has absolutely nothing to do with Oilers’ success at this point,” Caterina told reporters Tuesday at City Hall. “There are many groups that would like to see that moniker come back, but with an explanation of what that actually means.”

The phrase was forged after the 1987 tornado that killed 27 people and injured hundreds more. It was dedicated to the volunteers who cleaned up the city in the devastating aftermath.

Caterina said he’s received about a dozen calls from people in the last two weeks who want to bring the slogan back. He pointed to volunteer efforts after the Fort McMurray wildfire as one reason to rekindle the phrase.

“It is about every single person in the City of Edmonton, not hockey players, not football players, certainly not politicians. It applies to everyone doing the good work to move our city forward,” he said.

But Mayor Don Iveson said the name Edmonton speaks for itself.

“I’ve always felt that cities grow beyond slogans and tag lines,” he told reporters Tuesday. “Very few cities have their ‘just do it’ slogan equivalent and even Nike has outgrown that. It’s just a swoosh now.”