New Westminster to phase out Royal City moniker as it looks to rebrand

The City of New Westminster will begin phasing out the use of its Royal City moniker.

The motion passed by council Monday night also directs the city to update its logo, a gold crown symbolic of Queen Victoria and to work with the community to develop a new brand identity. 

New Westminster Mayor Jonathan Coté said on CBC's Early Edition the branding no longer represents the city's diverse community. 

"There's something that never sat well with me sending official letters to Indigenous Nations that have a giant colonial crown right on the front there," said Coté, who is soon departing as mayor. 

"I think we do need to recognize the central branding for the city, which has to represent the entire city, shouldn't probably be focused on one single aspect of the city's history."

Coté said the conversation about rebranding the city started two decades ago but was contentious at the time. 

The motion was passed with near unanimous support in Monday's council meeting except for Coun. Chuck Puchmayr, who says he's open to the idea but criticized the timing.

He says there should have been thorough community consultation as many residents continue to take pride in the city's royal connection.

"Doing it so rapidly is going to create winners and losers. And that's not what I want to see in my community," said Puchmayr.

The consultation and community engagement come next. Coté says, adding that the motion only directs the city's branding. He said it will not affect businesses or organizations that use the moniker, such as Royal City Taxi Ltd., Royal City Centre and the New Westminster Royals hockey team.

Cote says the city will begin to phase out the crown logo and the Royal City tag. However, he says engagement and the rebranding will likely take a few years.

A royal city

British Columbia's first capital has been known as the Royal City for over a century.

Rob McCullough, manager of museums and archives for the City of New Westminster, says the connection can be traced back to the municipality's earliest days before it was even named by Queen Victoria.

"A contingent of royal engineers arrived here to establish a capital for a new colony that was struck by Queen Victoria, so from the start, there was a sense of royalty attached to the city," he said. 

And the moniker stuck.

But long before Europeans ever set foot on the shores of the Fraser, the area that would become the city of New Westminster was part of the traditional lands of First Nations, including the Qayqayt, Kwantlen and Musqueam.

Qayqayt Chief Rhonda Larrabee says the rebranding is a step toward reconciliation.

"My ancestors were all here at that time, and so we should be recognized as well," she said.

"I believe the people in Canada are listening now to the legacy of what happened to our people. How we were treated, how we were oppressed, how we were not allowed to function as human beings."

She's hopeful the community engagement will help the city lean into its current and historic diversity.

City museum in transition

New Westminster's move to drop its previous brand is echoed by efforts at the city's museum, where a transition is underway to better reflect the city's diversity.

McCullough says much of the city's history has, so far, been left untold.

"You could say that these places are more associated with people moving into a space, acquiring the space, acquiring the objects of the people that were in that space and beginning to tell the stories through ... their own eyes," he said.

He says staff are working to undo that.