Downtown Guelph makes Canada's 150th a banner affair

Downtown Guelph received a historic touch this week with the placing of 151 historic banners on light poles to help celebrate Canada's 150th birthday.

"There's 151: one for every year since 1867, said Sam Jewell, events coordinator with the Downtown Guelph Business Association.

Each image highlights events, personalities, tragedies, achievements and milestones for the city.

"I think people have been calling them 'fun facts,'" Jewell said.

The banners, purchased through funding form the city, cost an estimated $25,000. They are placed on street light posts on Wyndham, Norfolk and Quebec streets.

They will remain in place until October.

"Art work and faces. Looking at people is something that is really great and relating Canada 150 to the community so that people can relate to it and connect with it," Jewell said.

As an added historical touch, where possible banners were placed in exact location where the image on the banner occurred.

For example, a banner on Quebec Street depicts an image of Guelph’s first Chinese laundry, now the site of the Royal Bank in St. George’s Square. An image of the demolition of the Carnegie Library is at the site of the Guelph Public Library.

More information on each banner's subject matter can be found at www.Guelph150.ca.

Local historian Tony Berto was in charge of identifying a different event for each year since Confederation.

"He was very enthusiastic ... he knows a lot and he's passionate about what he knows," Jewell said.

"Not only did we have to find events, but are there images for this event and are they suitable for a banner?"

He got help from Guelph Museums, Wellington County Museum and the Guelph Public Library archives.

Each image is framed in one of the 10 colours in the official Canada 150 logo. The banners were designed by local graphic designer and artist Cai Sepulis.

In a news release, Berto said choosing the images was no easy task.

"We had to decide which events to include from a great variety of episodes in our past. We wanted to cover all the bases about how our city came to be and who made it happen," Berto said.

"We also weren’t shy and selected some of our less fortunate times, including some disasters, scandals, riots, and crimes. Conversely, there were also relatively sleepy years where we had to comb over numerous records to find just the right thing."