Notorious rebranding to usher in the new roaring '20s

While Moose Jaw will always be friendly, now it will be known as being equally notorious; as a nod to the colourful history of both the city and it's people, Moose Jaw is now Canada’s Most Notorious City.

The campaign officially launched on May 8, with Moose Jaw-themed drinks and appetizers circulating through the crowd at the Yvette Moore Gallery.

The new campaign comes from rebranding discussions from earlier this year and is being called the city’s “worst kept secret;” but that won’t deter its forward path. With Tourism Moose Jaw and the Chamber of Commerce spearheading the movement, the rebrand is finally here. 

Founders of the campaign are excited to see how the city shapes itself around the new moniker. 

Local businesses are already leaning into the flexible campaign: if you stop in at Oliv Tasting Room, owner Charmaine Frankel has already begun with a poster collection. The recent MJBEX Awards opened with a video compilation of local business owners answering the question, “what is Moose Jaw notorious for?” 

And it is a great question, one that has too many answers. Built around the infamous Prohibition history of the city, the new slogan seeks to acknowledge that history but purposefully leaves room for personalization. 

Tourism Moose Jaw executive director Jacki L’Heureux-Mason wants to see individual businesses look to their past and build their own “notorious” stories. 

“There's a story to tell. . . Everybody has that opportunity to jump on and make it just completely be like a chameleon and work for their business or their organization,” said L’Heureux-Mason. “It's just going to be the fact that there's this amazing amount of stories that come from this city and everybody's going to have their own notorious way of sharing it.”

The rebranding is really putting the spotlight on the interesting stories that Moose Jaw has to offer —  something that keeps bringing people to visit Moose Jaw, according to Mayor Fraser Tolmie.

“The great thing about it is we've got a lot of creative people. We've got a lot of entrepreneurial people in the community,” said Mayor Tolmie. “We're just scratching the surface of people's stories, and you're going to be blown away by that.”

The hope, as L’Heureux-Mason said in her speech at the event, is that the new perspective of Moose Jaw will be so enticing, it ushers in this century’s roaring 20s and keeps the city as notorious as ever.