In February of 2005, we reported with shock and outrage that the Ontario government had issued an RFP to replace Ontario’s elegant, classic and functional wordmark and logo:

The Ontario logo is about clarity and efficiency. That’s precisely what government should be about — not glitzy marketing and sex-appeal. It looks authoritative enough to go on a badge. The pretty Tourism Ontario logo — probably the kind of thing the gub’mint is looking for in its RFP — would look stupid printed onto a traffic ticket or park ranger’s uniform. Besides, the [current] stylized logo, with its rounded containing box, is easily identifiable even in the absence of any text.

Well, a year and a half later, and they finally did it: They relegated a classic design to the logo cemetary, ushering in a thorny-looking and most unflowerlike looking trillium made up of human forms stolen from the Special Olympics logo. It’s like the Downsview Park logo with its hair in a spike.

As we expected, it’s glitzier than the old one, and less functional, too. And, of course, they managed to burn through nearly a quarter-million on the redesign. And who better to hire for the job than Bensimon-Byrne — whose client roster also includes, surprise surprise, the Ontario Liberal Party.

The CBC notes with interest that since running Dalton’s election ad campaign, the agency has received $6 million in contracts from the Liberal government. The NDP called foul on the agency’s last gubmint deal, for the stupid.ca anti-smoking ad contract.

Update:

A Toronto Star reader nails it:

“What a wasteful use of taxpayers’ dollars. For 40 years, our logo has been a simple, classic trademark. Now we have some stylized, easy-to-outdate logo, suspicious in its design. Reverse your field on this one, Dalton. Goodness knows, you’ve done it on enough other issues.”