Business Teacher Suggests P.G. Change it’s Name
Monday, February 20, 2012 @ 10:54 AM
Prince George, B.C.- What’s in a name? A great deal says Simon Gibson, and he thinks Prince George should change its name.
Gibson has served 3 decades on the Abbotsford City Council and is a sessions instructor of a Business class at the University of Fraser Valley.
He has sent an email to the Mayor of Prince George, a couple of City Councillors and a few other folks in the area, suggesting the City start a discussion about changing the City’s name. Gibson says many who live in the lower mainland of B.C. don’t know where Prince George is, that it is “up there somewhere, quite possibly on the Coast.”
Gibson says he lived in Smithers when he was a young fellow, and recognizes there is an urban-rural split in B.C. “You have the lower mainland, and then there is the North which is not appreciated or understood, so I think part of that could be resolved with a repositioning and re-branding of the great City Prince George is.”
He is well aware, his idea may not get any traction, and that there would likely be strong opposition from the many companies and organizations which use “Prince George” as part of their corporate name or identity. Making a change can be very expensive.
Gibson says all he is doing is “planting the seed, I’m not doing anything, I’m just suggesting any names, I have a few listed as whimsical examples, but I’m just planting the seed.”
Those whimsical examples include; Capital North, City of the North, and City of Northern Empire.
While he is aware the reaction from residents may very well be negative towards him for making the suggestion in the first place, he says he would rather hear that City Hall would be willing to have a meeting and talk about the idea “I think its exciting, I think Prince George can totally turn its image around.”
Gibson says all communities want investment, and while he suggests communities have to re-brand themselves in order to attract new business, he was not able to name any community that he was aware of that had actually changed its name as part of that re-branding process. “I personally don’t think the name Prince George has much excitement or energy to it, but maybe that’s just me. The people there may have all kinds of pride and think it’s the most wonderful name.”
Gibson says this is a not a frivolous suggestion he has put forth to Mayor Green and some Council “I thought it would be useful to create a public dialogue with regard to the marketability and understanding of the name Prince George in our province and I think there is an unfortunate disconnect between the south and the north and part of the resolution to that may be a re-branding or repositioning of the City of Prince George into a more progressive, modern sounding nomenclature.”
Comments
This guy must be on dots.
I actually don’t mind the idea of a name change, but hate the suggested examples.
Also, the cost for doing this would be very high and not fitting with the current environment of restraint.
Awesomeville
I love your comment Junco. Made me laugh.
Interesting idea but I think it would make more sense having the people of the south become more educated on the north. Maybe free trips to the north to see what it has to offer. LOL!
“Those whimsical examples include; Capital North, City of the North, and City of Northern Empire.”
How truly cringe worthy.
âI think its exciting, I think Prince George can totally turn its image around.â
We like our image thank-you very much now
go back to Abbotsford Your village is missing you.
Change the name of a nearly 100 year old city so that un-informed people may notice us?
Sorry, Mr. Gibson, but that is really strange idea. I understand that is only a ‘seed’ of an idea, which “probably won’t get any traction” but that seed came from a nut.
On the other hand, maybe this is a sign that the burghers of Prince George need to consider marketing our city in a more aggressive manner.
metalman.
Priority is fixing Roads not changing the Name of the City, what next!
Maybe the lower mainland could make some changes to their sames.
Abbotsford, could become Abbotsditch
Maple Ridge could become Maple Syrup
Chilliwack, could become Chillidog
Vancouver could become Gridlock City
Surrey could become City of big houses.
Steve
Council has already found enough ways to waste our money. Do we really need to give them any more?
How about Meisnerville? “Home of the grumpy old men” :)
I thought we already had “B.C.’s Northern Capital”.
http://princegeorge.ca/Pages/default.aspx
Who cares if they don’t know where we are. Those that want to find us can.
Someone show Mister Gibson how to use Google.
Well Mr. Gibson, sure we’ll change our city name if we can change your name to Southern Pinhead.
Totally ridiculous idea. Prince George is named after royalty. Changing its name won’t help the geographically challenged.
Besides, if we change the name, the pet name “Pig’s Gorge” will lose all meaning and that would be a shame.
Not only would the City have to change its name, but so would every other business and organization with Prince George in its title. What a huge inconvenience and unnecessary expense for the business community.
“We need a new rink-ville”
“Pot Hole City”
“New Vancouver”
This could be fun
Yah, I’m from Tim Buc Too, but it used to be called that old archaic name Prince George.
Tell yuh what, go take some meds, you’ve got way too much time on your hands.
As for all those bear hugg’in latte suck’in tree huggers in the lower mainland, stay there and keep your whimsical ideas to yourself.
Junco’s wonderful short comment also gave me a great laugh, thanks so much.
As for changing the name, we don’t really need any random seeds planted to start new fights, but rather solutions. Just throwing around expensive ideas for whimsical reasons is no good. Imagine the number of maps, businesses, directories, publications, etc that would have to be changed … for what? Like government, when your ideas are really bankrupt, then change the name on your letterhead. Gov-thought 101.
Thanks for the laugh though, lessonfom a business teacher, when you declare bankruptcy, 1st principle is to change your name.
LOL… I love it weaksauce.. change PG’s name to Steve.
“Where do you think you’re going?” “Over to Steve’s.”
Sorry Palopu, Maple Ridge already has a slag name of Maple Ditch. I’ve heard it down here on numerous occasions.
glad to see I am not alone in thinking what is this guy smoking? All three of his suggested name involves north when PG is located almost dead center of the province! Goes to show how self centered and disoriented people in the lower mainland are to the rest of the province. Almost as bad as the yanks thinking we all live in igloos. His story is however a good indicator that perhaps the PG region may need to invest in a little more awareness advertising to our friends down south
How about “Little Smoke”? Toronto was/is the “Big Smoke”. Copyright issues? Just call PG “Little Dust”. Oh, yes, use every PG sign and nail them on top of all of our pot holes.
I think a name change could be interesting. We do have a 100th anniversary coming up. Of course, those suggested ones really do not give the individual much credibility. Not knowing the individual, I am tending to think he is toying with us.
Cities do change names over time. Sometimes they are legitimate reflections of some considerable change. The amalgamation of Fort William, Port Arthur and two townships to become Thunder Bay in 1970, is one that comes to mind immediately.
But, a more recent one would be Westbank to West Kelowna.
How about Frobisher Bay to Iqaluit?
Berlin in 1916 during the war with Germany to Kitchener.
How about âTruth or Consequencesâ New Mexico which changed its name in 1950 from âHot Springsâ to the name of the TV show.
Common modern situations are
â¢Vancouver and the agglomeration of GVRD
â¢Toronto and the GTA = Greater Toronto Area
â¢Halifax and HRM = Halifax Regional Municipality.
Prince George has two levels of âlimitsâ as defined by census areas. One is the City and the other is the Census Agglomeration area which takes in a radius of about 30 km on average from City Hall. That area would include another 10,000 or so people.
So, the question is, will there be a time when that Prince George CA would be a better way to define and reference the reality of a city with a growing outer ring and a shrinking or stagnant inner core, following the pattern of most cities, large or small.
In the meantime … try “Temperance” on for size. Michigan has one. Total WASP. 97.5% white.
Or, how about Berkekey? Berkeley, British Columbia? Has a nice ring to it.
UNBC’s Berkeley Campus …. ;-)
Just think of the possibilities. People are not used to making fun of a Berkeley.
Its stupid to even suggest something like a name change.I know people in the lower mainland that have no idea of where most of the towns or cities are anywhere north of Hope so what good would a name change be?You would not want a name with Vancouver or Surrey in it because like it says in the movie we all know.Build it and they will come.
Build it? … so we should change the name to “It”? Is that like an acronym for “Information Technology”
ITBC
Like it…!!!
Hey Simon can I offer you a suggestion for a place you can plant your seed?
How about we rename Abbotsford to say…..Gangford or Crackheadford or how about Idiotsford!
Just what the world needs, another dope that wants to see his name in lights.
Good comments, folks. They made me laugh. I should have read this story just before bed tonight – it is always nice to end your day with a fairy tale.
Could change a name of a city, place, person, thing, etc. but it does not change the root of the problem.
See there are wingnuts everywhere.
Well that should warrant a “Study” with council no doubt!
It sounds like part of the problem is that people down south confuse Prince George with Prince Rupert. Perhaps it would be easier to persuade Prince Rupert to adopt a new name…
“It sounds like part of the problem is that people down south confuse Prince George with Prince Rupert”
There is a genuine confusion out there between Prince George and Prince Rupert, I’ve noticed it out here in Ottawa as well. People always ask me if I miss the ocean and when I explain to them that Prince George is a 7-8 hour drive from the ocean they just sort of look at me weird, LOL.
I do agree with most people here, it’s just a bizarre suggestion to me. If the City wants to improve its image, I suggest it actually just does things to address the issues that give it a bad image as opposed to just changing the name. What a concept eh?
As an aside, I wonder how the average person in PG would respond if you asked them to explain the difference between St. John and St. Johns? LOL :)
Gibson just reinforces the absolute ignorance of the lower mainland to the rest of BC particularly the north. Myself I would rather see something like Province of Northern BC. Whats your thoughts on that Gibson?
I think thats a grand idea to change the name of PG. And money is no object it would improve our image so that we could shut down another money graber and thats IPG.
And all those naysayers. Come on its a hundered years old so a fresh start would be great.Dustville sounds good to me for PG. And Mr Gibson we could also change the name of Abbotsford to Baconville.
Cheers
Well Mr. Gibson is getting HIS name well known in PG. What a dufus. Costs would be beyond huge, and for what? Lower mainlanders still won’t know where we are. In my books they are beyond Hope not us.
Lheidli Tâenneh were here first, centuries before any people employed in the service of British royalty showed up here! Ask the Lheidli Tâenneh what their ancient habitat was called. Lheidli Tâenneh means the people from where the two rivers are flowing together (I think). Perhaps the Lheidli Tâenneh can tell us what the Fraser River was called before its name was changed!
If it is a meaningful nice sounding name, let’s do it!
(Now duck, the bricks will be flying).
Stinkville
if we want people to know where PG is,we should start with the TV weather people, there doesn,t seem to be anyone north of Vancouver, or any weather north of there,specialy on the national weather forecast
Good lord is this the dumbest thing I have heard out of Abbotsford yet. How about working on your own town first. What the H is an Abottsford anyway. From what I have smelled down there maybe Crapville or Manurespread city would be more appropriate. I like Prince George just the way it is Thank you very much !
Change it to just ‘Prince’.
Then in a few years we can go strictly with a symbol, formerly known as ‘Prince’
:)
cheers!
The Carrier name for the Fraser River is Lhtakoh which means “rivers within each other”, which refers to the fact that the currents due to the Nechako and the Fraser could be distinguished for some distance after they joined due to their different colours.
I vote Princess Leia.
I mean really, just think of the tourism related possibilities. Heck, many of the local leaders in PG already speak in terms that only Chewbacca could understand so the fit would be perfect!!!!
The Carrier name for the Fraser River is Lhtakoh which means “rivers within each other”, which refers to the fact that the currents due to the Nechako and the Fraser could be distinguished for some distance after they joined due to their different colours.
“Lheidli Tâenneh were here first”
Were they?
“Change it to just ‘Prince'”
That would be fitting. It’s already a well known name in the court report!
I see that the “The Red Bluff Indian Band” a name given by the Government, I gather, goes by the name “Lhtako Dene Nation”.
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Maybe Waco would be more appropriate than Berkeley.
I mean, this could take all night. :-(
But it is for a good cause. We have to keep people from the south entertained. :-)
When I first got here, a lot of people were just shortening it to Prince. Nice and short.
Or we could go for “Prints”.
how about ”Boy George” or ”Boy George of the North”
Is this Gibson clown for real? Who pays the wages of these idiots? Where ever his income flow is coming from, it should be turned of off!! I’m not sure what he is teaching, but that to should be stopped!!
If this is the beginning of his campaign to run for Government, he certainly is off to a good start. He will fit right in!
“Lheidli Tâenneh were here first”
Were they?
——–
You are kidding, I hope…
I’ve always advocated PG change its name. A name says a lot about a community. Prince George, what the heck is that anyways it wasn’t even named after an actual person… just kind of morphed into that over the years for lack of imagination.
I think people hear Prince George and if they haven’t been here they think over grown bush camp filled with unimaginative explicits.
I like the idea of maybe calling the city Foothills BC… Two Rivers BC, , or Eagleone BC, or possibly even something descriptive like Linkanorth lol.
The greatest city in the old world even changed its name from Constantinople to Istanbul. So goes to prove that some will change it for the worse… we wouldn’t want to do that though with Empire North lol.
My vote is for Kirk
Best name would be “Deadwood”.
A fitting tribute to the millions of hectares of beetle kill…and equally as (or more) crooked and corrupt as the Black Hills town of old west South Dakota.
“You are kidding, I hope…”
I hope you’re kidding that you hope I may be kidding. You are kidding, right?
I like Fraser Forks.
Prince George was named after an idiot. Prince George, Duke of Cambridge (George William Frederick Charles; 26 March 1819 â 17 March 1904) was a member of the British Royal Family, a male-line grandson of King George III.
He was stupid as well as ugly and said “the only time for change is when you can’t avoid it”.
Fraser Forks is nice. More in line with honoring someone with a tangible connection to this region.
Only one person commented that we are near the center of B.C.
The south.
It reminds me of when I was trucking into the States. Down there you only said that you were from ‘up north’ or Canada. No one knew any more than that. If you said British Columbia people though you were from South America!
Seems the farther north you go, the more the people know their geography.
Hey, Give, that’s only because we have to educate all those ignorant southerners! Someone has to know where we are on a map! LOL
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