The Government of Saskatchewan has a new logo, and it's about time. The old one, a stylized wheat sheaf, was limited in scope and dated in style. While wheat was a foundation on which the province is built, basing your government's marketing efforts around it is somewhat limiting, and a logo that's in a dated style just makes it look like the province is behind the times. It's not the image that we want to project.
The new logo, which is an upward swoop on top of the province itself, is more in line with the image the province wants to project. It's more modern, and having all of the lines directed upwards is supposed to imply things moving up and getting better. It's a trick used by many organizations to try to project positivity, but it's something appropriate for a government.
So it looks good and projects a positive image for the province. What's not to like? Well, if you're the provincial NDP, and also seemingly desperate to create a controversy, you are going to object to the color scheme. See, the new logo is green and gold, which is similar to the party colors used by the governing Saskatchewan Party. They're not the exact same shades, but the NDP believes they're trying to make over the province in their image.
This is nonsense, and anyone with any grasp of the province's long-standing color scheme will recognize. The colors are green and gold, which are two of the three colors prominently displayed on the provincial flag. The third color, orange, is used by the NDP. Using green and gold in materials relating to the province makes sense because it ties into the flag and they are generally associated with Saskatchewan. Gold has been used on government materials for as long as I can remember, and the green used in the logo is necessary to provide a bit of contrast, and compliments the gold used.
Yes, the Saskatchewan Party also uses green and gold, but that's to be expected. They also happen to use the province's name in their party, and that provides a bit of a clue as to why green and gold have a prominent place in their color scheme. They are trying to evoke Saskatchewan, and as a result picked the two colors most associated with the province itself. What the NDP is failing to realize is that green and gold just happen to be the standard provincial colors, and this is something that predates the Saskatchewan Party. They're so caught up in their political rivalry and trying to get one up on the ruling party that they've forgotten about the history of the province itself, and the origins of the color schemes they're trying so hard to reject.
When the opposition came out against the new logo, my first thought was that they surely have better things to do. They need to get a new leader, rebuild their base, and start to become a viable alternative again. That won't happen if all they're doing is trying to start fights about little things that aren't actually controversial, and are getting caught up in bickering rather than presenting a real alternative to the ruling party. Trying to start a fight about this logo makes them seem out of touch with the province, so focused on usurping their political rivals that they forget the flag that flies outside of their own offices.
