Would you pay the Montreal ad agency Cossette $500,000 for a logo?

— 11.26.2018 08:45 AM

The government of Canada did.

For the half-million bucks, they got the logo and a name and some letterhead, apparently. For – and this is the part that should make you want to throw up – an agency whose mandate is to fight poverty.

Both of my brothers are graphic artists.  My Mom is an artist.  (I’ve done art-for-pay, too.)  All of us can tell you that forking over that much money for a logo is an actual, honest-to-God scandal.

So I said on Twitter.


That elicited this response from Joseph Uranowski:


Fair point. Of course they deserve to get paid. But I didn’t believe that Mr. Uranowski – who was a senior advisor to Kathleen Wynne – was actually getting my point. So I tried again.


Mr. Uranowski doubled down:


Anyway. At that point, I opined that my graphic design brother would fire anyone who spent that much on a logo. And then I gave up. A person in poverty would know how to spend that $500,000 better, I thought. And I didn’t understand how Mr. Uranowski – reportedly a smart guy – didn’t understand that.

And then I remembered this: $650,000 for the Cannabis Store logo, courtesy of Ms. Wynne’s government. Oh, and the $700,000 a month her Wizard reportedly received in contracts, all of which will shortly be the subject of a forensic audit.

Am I missing something? Is a logo really worth half-a-million dollars?

Or, is it, you know, a fucking disgrace?

I still think it is.


Comments (13)

St. Mike’s

— 11.20.2018 04:01 PM

I have lots to say about what is happening over there, and the root causes. But I’ve told my wife that I won’t, because this is all causing great pain – agony, almost – for our sons who went there.

But, as a regular attendee at a church run by the Basilians, I will say just this:



Comments (2)

Victory! Neo-Nazi rag barred from postal system

— 11.15.2018 05:51 PM

After many years – and after lots of hard work by a lot of people in the Jewish, Muslim, LGBTQ communities, as well as women and people of colour – victory at last!

The Minister responsible for Canada Post has barred Your Ward News from using the postal system. This is a huge victory for tolerance, diversity and community action.

Congrats to all.




Comments (6)

McGill students defeat intolerance

— 11.13.2018 03:40 PM

Congratulations to Tomas Jirousek, Ben Kinsella and other students for this important victory.

More here.

McGill University students have voted in favour of changing the name shared by the school’s varsity men’s sports teams, the Redmen, in a move they hope will pressure the university to respond in kind.

On Monday evening, students voted 78.8 per cent in favour of a change.

The non-binding referendum, organized by McGill’s student union, collected 5,856 votes — one of the highest participation rates for a vote of its kind at the university.

“Today, as students, we are defending values of respect and inclusion on campus,” a statement by the union said, adding it was thrilled by the result.


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