Toronto Coat Of Arms

When I first ran across the following I thought it was something pulled out of the latest edition of The Onion but it seems to go much deeper........

Verschiedenartigkeit, unsere Stärke

Via I, Ectomorph, HT SDA, PBUH, here's Toronto's comical new coat of arms:

One might expect Latin on the coat of arms of a great city, but it turns out that dead languages are not suitable media for expressing empty, faddish slogans.

Couldn't Toronto at least have found a semi-meaningful motto, one that won't sound as dated as acid rain by 2016?

posted by Mike at 10/12/2006 07:20:00 AM

There seems to be more to the story:

The Toronto coat of arms was designed recently (finally approved by Toronto city council in October of 1998) for the newly-amalgamated megacity of Toronto. The symbolism of the shield is obvious (the big T), but at least it isn't cluttered (and they resisted the urge to add an annulet to make it "T-O"). The large blue T in a gold field is also reminiscient of medieval maps of the world (so-called "T-O" maps), with a T-shaped ocean dividing Asia (top) from Africa (right) and Europe (left), with Jerusalem being at the centre of the circular world. It's a standing joke in Canada that Torontonians consider themselves the centre of the universe, so this is rather appropriate.

The beaver and bear are two of the original inhabitants of the area; the beaver also suggests industry and Canada, while the bear (presumably taken from the crest of the provincial arms) represents strength and a tendency to swallow up one's neighbors. They bear medallions with an alder leaf (representing Etobicoke) and a columbine flower (for Scarborough). The golden eagle as the crest is meant to symbolize freedom and to honour the Mississauga First Nations (who held the eagle as sacred). The previous design (shown below) used a bald eagle for this, but it was changed because it looked too American. The mural crown (beneath the eagle) represents civic authority, bears two white roses (for York and East York, two of the municipalities that were assimilated) and a heart (for North York). The compartment shows three rivers (the Don, Humber, and Rouge), flowing into a lake (Lake Ontario). The motto (rather trite, in my humble opinion, but I also think most civic mottoes are) signifies the amalgamation of the various cities into the megacity.

The picture is by Linda Nicholson; image and data taken from Hogtown Heraldry, the newsletter of the Toronto Branch of the Heraldry Society of Canada. The article is reproduced here.