New Canadian Monopoly unveiled, Toronto relegated to light blue
Toronto real estate may be red hot, but in the fictitious marketplace of the classic board game Monopoly, Toronto is about as valuable as a four-bedroom house next to a GM factory in Detroit. The new Canadian edition of Monopoly (on sale June 28) was unveiled this morning, and Toronto’s place on the board is in the lowly light blues, the home of Vermont Avenue in the original version.
The coveted Boardwalk spot went to Chatham-Kent, a farm town you’ve probably never heard of in southwestern Ontario. We’ve got ourselves to thank for this—the positions were decided in an on-line vote by more than one million people. Park Place went to Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Quebec, population 87,000. Apparently the voters weren’t from urban areas, since Vancouver and Ottawa were also banished to the light blues; Montreal only made it to orange; and Halifax didn’t even make it onto the board. There is, however, one Toronto asset on the board: Pearson Airport—one thing Canadians value in this city is where they can get out of it and fly home.
Wow. Ugly design.
Chatham-Kent … yes is a farm town cummunity of 110,000 people. If you haven’t heard of it that is okay. Don’t complain that you have a terrible spot on the board of monopoly. You as a big city should of blown us out of the water but instead as usual you complain about it! Are you city dwellers never happy? Blame yourself! Everyone else is happy!
Um, your ‘Toronto Asset’ YYZ is actually not in Toronto. You knew that, right?
#justsayin
yes chatham is boardwalk. and it should be, home of the famous under-ground railway, chatham is just as good if not better than any big city like toronto or ottawa.
Not that big city people couldn’t blow Chatham out of the board, but Chatham possibly has the most number of idle people voting every minutes, or has people who can devote every minute voting for their farm town. I’ve been voting for Niagara Falls ONCE everyday but am dumbfounded another relatively obscure town Beauceville trumped Niagara Falls.
I for sure will not buy this ridiculously designed game.
Those who thought of this voting system is either not a Canadian, or should be fired.
How Canadian is it when you can’t even get all 10 provinces on the board? So the Great Minds decided it would be an online vote, Stop crying about your position Toronto, Prince Edward Island is not even on the board and Confederation was born here. Even if everyone in the whole province voted we would not stand a chance. Take your Canada, I would not buy a board. Congratulations to the Great Minds, you have made some great decisions pitting one against one another. Another marketing company please.
Hi,
Why can’t everyone just be happy with what you get ? If you vote for your city an encourage others to vote, then I hope you got on! If you did all of that and didn’t make it on the board, you still tried and thats all that matters. We are proud that Chatham made it on the Monopoly Canada board!! Toronto, Halifax, Montreal .. they all should have been at the top, but because nobody voted from those places it’s obvious they didnt make it up as high. We’re proud community and I commend all those who’s efforts got their city onto the board, as well as those who gave it their all and didnt make it!!! It was a fair chance and it was up to us. They put the vote in our hands, you know, Like CANADA, Democracy :)
Go Chatham Kent woot woot!!
Uh, why would anyone care about this at all? The placement of any place on this board reflects nothing more than the level of insecurity in town.
Really!?! If your upset with your town’s spot on the board then you should have voted more! Congrats to the people of Chatham Kent, who clearly take much pride in where they come from!
Looks like Montrealers stopped caring after getting the first spot on the World edition.
Where was this voting advertised? A stupid idea followed by an incompetent advertising program. I not only will not buy this game but will go as far as to discourage any Winnipeggers or Manitobans from buying it.
Toronto worth basically nothing – I love it – couldn’t have happened to a nicer town!
really who cares, who plays monopoly as an adult anyway, chatham is gay, but only because their city council cant even agree on building hockey arenas and parks, but yet they are marching in a parade over a stupid board game.
There are 2 good things about toronto, The leafs and the Jay’s other than that its a city trying too hard to be like new york, when anyone who’s ever been to new york knows that toronto doesnt even have 1/10th the character of new york.
Well I have been to New York, and it’s character is highly over rated.
I am sure that someone, somewhere, within Hasbro will be missing out on their bonus this year when this game turns out to be a colossal flop. One can tell that a small number of people by voting numerous times swayed the vote and the results being relatively obscure places in Canada even to many Canadians getting top spots.
Unfortunately, unless everyone in those obscure spots buys a copy, which is unlikely to happen, this will flop.
I do not even live in Toronto (or Ottawa or Montreal or Vancouver or ….) and I will not buy this. It does not reflect Canada; either in the importance of our cities or in the breadth of our country. Frankly, it is just dumb!
I am sadly disappointed that we as Canadians have resorted to bashing fellow cities and communities over spot placement on a board game. Six months ago we found the time to come together as a nation to celebrate hockey gold at the Olympics, as well as cheering on all of our other medal recipients in their respective sports. Nobody is asking you to buy the game Jack_the_ripper, so just sit back and stare at pictures of your blessed New York and their 9/10 of character they possess while we ADULTS play our board game.
Is there anything more amusing than sore losers? Keep it up guys, you’re hilarious!
You should have encouraged more people to vote, end of story.
Oh it’s in English AND French, yay Canada!
Chatham as Boardwalk??? Why on earth is this so, nothing against Chatham but this city is not the crown jewel of Canada and does not deserve the boardwalk spot on the Monopoly board! I will not be buying this version this year on account of this alone!
As a resident of Chatham-Kent (born and raised in Manitoba) I am proud of my home community for rallying behind Eileen Barnes and making it to the most coveted spot on the board and I for one of many am proud to be a Canadian and to have a Canadian Edition of the game, so please as a country stop griping and support all the towns and cities as a whole who voted and lets just celebrate OUR CANADA!!!!
wow, i really wanted to buy this game but not anymore! Halifax not on the board??? WTF is Chatam??? Who voted for this??
Oh well I’ll save my money until the next version when they put the true Canadian great cities on the board. What a joke. what a disappointing joke!
I am truly disappointed in some of the responses. I am from Chatham-Kent, our community has plenty of history not just a farming town. The war of 1812, the underground railroad and many many more. Chatham-Kent is 2400 square kilometers(larger than Toronto) population of 110,000. Sorry if your city didn’t make it on the board, that is not our fault. We did our part for our community. As for the advertising of the voting, thank your mayor. Our mayor was notified by Hasbro Monopoly, he then notified our radio station where i first heard about it. Then I myself a citizen of Chatham Kent started a Facebook group to get the word out to more citizens of Chatham Kent. The comment that all we have to do is sit around voting all day, no you could only vote once a day and all it took was the people that love were they live to care enough to take the time to vote.
I am proud to live in Chatham Kent, Proud to be Canadian. Just very sorry that more can’t be proud of their fellow Canadians but instead throw out insults just because of what they achieved. I myself will be buying 2 games, one to play and one to keep.
Thank you to everyone who supported us.
So I see ALL THE BICKERING between Chatham and Toronto … big deal … the bigger issue is that HASBRO is releasing a Canadian version of Monopoly without including all of the provinces and territories that make our country what it is … that is disappointing to say the least … they should have included at minimum one city or town from each province and territory and then filled the gaps with the voted winners. The concept of Canadian Monopoly looks like HASBRO thinks we only have four provinces … nothing more … good job game makers … I won’t be getting this one …
Come on, Torontonians, do we really care? Do we really need Monopoly to tell us that we are awesome?
We have enough amazing things going on in the city to fulfill our need for civic pride. Can’t we just let Chatham-Kent have their glory? They seem to actually care that they won this.
While the end results may be disappointing to many, it’s great they even did a Canadian version. I do agree with the placements reflecting the number of proud community voters, BUT…..it would be more Canadian if each province / territory was represented. Perhaps the community chest or chance cards will reflect a more accurate picture of the most wonderful country in the world!
for example 1) Flight to Toronto rerouted to Island Airport, lose $100 or 2) Fog closes in on Halifax go back 3 spaces, 3) Win Photo contest, two weeks all expenses ($500 ?) to Lovely Cavendish Beach 4) Red River floods again lose 1 turn.
Tons of ways to be more inclusive
Exuse me TREVOR its a farm country it feeds your City.
Alright people we all know your upset … It’s true we need inclusion in our board games but however who are we to complain that this city is on this or this city isnt on this. People We are missing the point here Canadian monopoly was created for fun and we had the chance to vot for what we think is true within our hearts. Chtham -kent Worked TOGETHER to build this succes it isnt candian of us if we dont let others have a chance. Sure not all porvinces were on the borad but the point was to get everyone to work together. Whats our country without team work. did you even think their was peace right after world war 2 without teamwork. Did you even think canada would win gold medals for mens hockey or womens hockey. we all were in this. we as a crowd cheared. them as players recieved our cheers and gave their all but divide the country by city ummmmmmm .people ……..where was our team work during the olympics. i think we were just good as a country but not by city. This… this was our chance. WE dont have the ight to diss other cities who tried. “Winning , isn’t everything. but wanting to win is!”
I am from Vancouver and didn’t even know about the voting. I guess we in the big cities don’t give a darn. We are too busy with our stressful jobs, heavy traffic, and thriving nightlife; hence, big cities like Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa got the lousy spots on the board. I think the voting is fun, but I think it’s a bust for leaving out Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Territories, while St. John’s has to represent all of the Maritimes.
P.E.I. and Newfoundland are part of Canada?
SINCE WHEN?
Who really gives a damn where Monopoly property is located on a cardboard board???
This is news?
What next? Complain that the game Mouse Trap is cruel and call PETA? Gimme a break. Some of you need lives. See that big thing on the wall with a door handle? Turn it and open it. Now step outside and see that there is life other than in your hole of a house. Wherever it’s located in Canada.
I for one, thought it was an awesome marketing strategy by the makers of the Monopoly Game! They offered everyone in the country a fair chance to have their community chosen to be on the board. They set the rules and we got to voting. I heard about it on facebook. I voted. I encouraged everyone I knew to vote. It was exciting! I own a little bake shoppe here in Chatham, and reminded my customers from time to time to vote as well. Congratulations to all those who did vote for their community. Whether you had enough votes to get on the board or not, it was good fun! Special congrats to Chatham-Kent voters! Way to go! Woot Woot!!!
Just wait until the compainers find out that Shawinigan and Trois-Rivieres both nade it on the board and they are only 30 kms apart with a combined pop of only around 150K, go figure.
I’m a bit disappointed in the debby downers in regards to Chatham-Kent. Big cities I guess don’t understand that the little cities are just as important as them. I actually thought people would just be happy to make it on the board. I know as a Chatham Native I am darn proud. Not even the placement of where we are but the fact that we were able to come together and get a spot on the board.
To some this isn’t a big deal but to others it is. Children who play this game will now see Chatham-Kent and wonder what it’s significance is. With this some may even go as far as to research it. To their surprise they will find that Chatham is a pretty important place. Underground railroad, the farming community that we are known for, the war of 1812. For being such a small city Chatham has a huge stake in history many of which unless your from chatham don’t know about.
We, well at least I am very proud to be CANADIAN and am equally as proud to see that Chatham such a small town was able to come together and vote for their city. If that isn’t moving then I don’t know what is. For me I see it as encouragement that we as CANADIANS Care about everyone and every city big or small. MIND YOU yes they should have had each province included. That was a bit of a draw back and perhaps as someone else mentioned they will be by the ‘Provincial’ and ‘Federal’ Cards.
I’ll be buying 2 as well.
I think the voting system is a good idea. If you didn’t vote then don’t complain. Or better yet take pride in the fact that it’s a Canadian Edition. Stop sqawking. I’m sure the game will sell well, if you don’t like then don’t buy it. I know I will.
Notice how everyone is always so jealous of Toronto they have to put it down all the time? Pretty pathetic.
There was a lot of fuss about the voting for Monopoly Here and Now World Edition too. Many of the world’s greatest cities failed to make the cut due to skewed online voting mechanisms. Anyway, some might argue that Toronto SHOULD be on the light blue street :)
trust me noone is jealous of toronto, when I think of toronto I think of muchmusic ctv and george strambolopolous, (with an exception of the Jays and Leafs) toronto sucks, like i was saying before if Dundas square isn’t the most pathetic version of times square I dont know what is,
This just in, toronto is not new york, and never will be, no matter how hard it tries. New york has 200 plus years of history, you cant compete New York is the centre of the universe for almost everything.
Shouldn’t all of the squares you can land on be various kinds of taxes?
Did they add the new HST tax too which comes in effect July 1st this Thursday??
In the end it came down to a vote. I am from North Bay, we worked our butts off to promote this game, it even turned into a friendly Northern Ontario competition with Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins. I do agree there should be a representative from every province but whats done is done. In the end the people spoke and perhaps big cities like Toronto and Montreal had better things to do than vote, but if that is the case they have no right or reason to complain, I am sure they will be too busy and stressed to play the game anyways. So go North Bay and I will be buying at least 1 copy of the game!
i dont know why everyone is bugging out about chatham-kent. if you actually play monopoly you’d know that boardwalk is not the most useful spot on the board, so in my opinion it isnt the best. the properties that normally yield the most value are the red/yellow properties.
Oh yes, Toronto has a lot to be proud of! Just look at what happened this past weekend.
That is NOT a good representative of Canada, thank god not enough of you voted. As far as your “farmers community” goes, at least we can pull together to acheive a goal that doesn’t destroy our community.
Chatham (or Chatham-Kent as it’s now known) is my hometown, and quite honestly – as I was reminded this weekend at my high school reunion – there’s not much else to do in town, so when this came up everyone went nuts. Blame it on boredom! People have to go to London (1 hour away) or Windsor (45 mins away) for excitement ;)
…Well its not CHATHAM itself on here.
Everyone is missing out that it is in Municipality OF Chatham-Kent. Alot of other little towns in there other then chatham.
So yay CK! (screw you chatham) Go chatham-KENT haha
Why did they get rid of the mountie for the “Go to jail” Spot!!!!
I just don’t get it? Why is the big cities crying about, |Calgary and Edmonton made it into the green. And yes, our mayors and public officals. it was up to the people of the city to vote and put our mark on the board. I had 2 votes and I used them to vote for my town and my childhood town of Winnipeg. I think if you really cared about your country there would be more people voting at election time.
Hello, There are over 200 cities in Canada. How could they all have been on the board anyway…
If it was by population Toronto would of been the Boardwalk. Actually to be honest I would have loved Niagara Falls to be Blue. That brings a LOT of people around the world to it. Now all the people bashing Toronto, give it a rest it wasn’t our fault we wanted the G20 it was Harper. Niece could of had it 10x cheaper but he wanted to put Canada on the map. Apparently he didn’t know the 2010 Winter Olympics were going on and that we won more Gold medals than any other country in the world.
If it was me? It would have been Toronto and Montreal as the 2 blue spots and Chatham-Kent should be in the brown or light blue respectively. No offense and the Water Works should be Niagara Falls Hydro Electric Plant, though I like how Calgary is the green spot that I’m not complaining about.
If you want an accurate vote don’t do it on the Internet. take about 2-3 days for any computer specialist to setup a cheat system…
Ya, Chatham-Kent won top spot, and it deserves to because its small, farming communities like this that make Canada what it is.
I think they did a horrible job… Because its called CANADIAN MONOPOLY! Not half of canada…Plus I think the voting was quiet bias due to the fact it was people voting for their hometowns and plus could have voted many times… I really think they should have done just the provinces and other major places. And possibly could have alter some of the rules ann also just saying Free parking sucks…
There is a larger signifigance to Park Place and Boardwalk. Paincourt, a rural community in Chatham-Kent was formed by many French pioneers from Quebec and in fact my relatives come from St Jean Sur Richeleau which took Park Place so I win twice. Now lets see if I can conquer my opponents when I play!
WTG Park Place and Boardwalk!
Who is complaining? This is a god damn MONOPOLY BOARD… WHO CARES?! Everyone needs to chug a nice big cup of shut the fuck up!
If it is of paramount importance to you that your province/town be on the board, you should’ve voted. Let’s leave it at that.
Fucking way too opinionated, you all are.
i think that if it is a canadian edition it should have at least a town or city from every province and territorie not two or more from one province like quebec
I had a sneaking suspicion that they would forget the prairies. Somehow they miss two entire provinces right in the middle of the country yet Chilliwack makes it on… wow
I agree. Not all provinces on a Canadian board?? Come on!
pathetic… one game we won’t be buying for sure.
A marketing idea gone VERY wrong!!! Why? All of the Park Place type board winners used (employed) other communities to vote for them. That includes Chatham, Windsor, Sarnia and several other smaller communities that are barely cities. Next time, if there ever is one, have the courage to select cities based on their importance economically, culturally or simple by population. Your marketing manager needs to return to school… but not St Clair College!
Woooooo, go sarnia!
1 Canadian Dollar = 0.77 US Dollar…Who Wants To Play Now???
It says “FREE PARKING” Where???
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Terry Yonka Not in Toronto!!!