We knew where we were going, we knew how to get there, and we knew when we arrived.
Still, it was nice to be welcomed.
And so we were, though the greeting was extended by a place I鈥檇 never heard of: Blue Sky City.
Formerly, 鈥楬eart of the New West鈥, 鈥楾he west鈥檚 most progressive industrial centre鈥, 鈥楬ost City of the 1988 Olympic Winter Games鈥, and of course, 鈥楾he Stampede City鈥.
Calgary has had a variety of mottos and messages on its entrance signs over the decades. The new one, put up on signs a few months ago, is designed, I suppose, to convey a sense of optimism but it also references a meteorological fact: Calgary is the sunniest city in
Canada.
It gets an average of 333 sunny days each year, according to The Weather Network.
So the sign is apt, and as a former Calgarian it鈥檚 fine by me. But the single best thing about the Blue Sky sign is how fantastically cheap it is.
It looks like it's made of cardboard stapled to two-by-fours, and the font and spacing has drawn plenty of comment on the Interweb.
鈥淒id we travel back in time to 1976? I feel like that would be something you鈥檇 see in the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon,鈥 one wag posted on a Reddit sub threat.
Another added: 鈥淚 hope that鈥檚 just temporary signage and we鈥檙e still waiting on the final version that was designed by someone with two digits in their age.鈥
The Highway 1 sign cost $12,000, according to the City of Calgary鈥檚 public relations department. City staff built the sign, using the poles and base from an old sign to support it.
Which brings us, in a roundabout way, to the City of Kelowna鈥檚 new welcome sign, to be placed along Highway 97 near Duck Lake.
It鈥檚 a five-level amber job, with imagery said to symbolize (take a big breath) Ponderosa pine trees, Indian carrots, Kokanee salmon, red-winged blackbirds, fruit trees, Indigenous pictographs, cedar bark baskets, western honeybees, grizzly bears, and Okanagan sunflowers.
Councillors were agog last fall when they approved it, praising what they said was its awesomeness and multi-layered imagery, even if they acknowledged its full majesty may not be apparent to people whizzing by at 100 km/h.
鈥淣ow, I know that people coming in, they might not understand it. But I just think it鈥檚 really beautiful,鈥 Coun. Maxine DeHart said.
鈥淲hat a beautiful looking rattlesnake inspiration, if that鈥檚 what it was,鈥 said Coun. Charlie Hodge.
Whatever it is, it鈥檚 fantastically expensive.
City council heard last year the new sign, being created by local artists Crystal Przybille and Sheldon Louis Pierre working with CTQ Consultants, could cost up to $800,000, though that was just an estimate with a final tab to come. As of this week, there still isn鈥檛 an exact cost, with some unknowable expenses dependent on whatever building and siting stipulations may be required by the Ministry of Highways, Fortis, and Telus.
The plan is to have the sign in place by next September, though if I was a city councillor I might suggest the installation be slow-walked until just after the October 2026 municipal election. Because the minute it goes up, at a total cost approaching $1 million, the sign is going to be a perfect symbol of this city council鈥檚 hubris and profligacy.
A million bucks? For a welcome sign? What on earth were they thinking?? That鈥檒l be top of mind for some voters as they consider who to vote for.
With a population 10 times bigger than Kelowna, Calgary can get by with a welcome sign that cost 1/70th what Kelowna is spending. Internet mockery aside, I'm pretty sure I know which sign taxpayers would prefer.
Ballot questions are usually pretty simple things, and they can focus on items that seem trivial in the moment. Several members of a previous city council got the boot in no small part because the city spent a lot of time in the aftermath of the 2008 recession pondering whether to allow backyard chickens. It was taken, rightly, as a sign of a city council woefully out of touch with the concerns of citizens.
It鈥檚 not often mentioned at Kelowna City Hall, but Kelowna鈥檚 economy is looking very shaky right now. Since January, the Central Okanagan has shed a staggering 10,000 jobs, the apartment vacancy rate is third highest in Canada, and building permits have plunged to well below the most recent 10-year annual average.
Meanwhile, city taxes have risen almost three times higher than the inflation rate since 2023, the municipal workforce swells and swells, and unionized city workers got an unbelievable wage increase of 12 per cent over two years.
When that new welcome sign is in place, it could easily become a lightning rod for voter discontent.
Ron Seymour is a Kelowna Courier writer.
