The $78-million plan to sell the CN Tower and colour it green

If there’s anything Toronto needs, it’s more corporate sponsorship and a city landmark that is somehow more ridiculous than the triumphant phallus we already have. Thankfully, Vehicle Gateway, a Web site listing used cars for sale, has allegedly submitted a $78-million bid that, if successful, will allow the company to not only rename Toronto’s most recognizable landmark, but also redecorate it. Some wonder if the plan is a stunt—but is it?

CNW released an item detailing the plan, complete with a comment from a man named Peter Davies, VG’s “director of sales”, saying, “A plan is in the works to have the outer structure coloured green with green solar-powered LED lights.” The release says that the company will work with Environment Canada to ensure that the newly green behemoth is the most sustainable freestanding structure around—that it’ll be green both literally and figuratively.

To us, the whole thing smacks of a publicity stunt. When contact by the Globe about the issue, Gordon McIvor, vice-president of public and government affairs at Canada Lands Company (the Crown corporation which owns the landmark), said, “We have no intention right now of selling the tower—the bricks and mortar or the naming rights…Letting the media know that you want to buy something before the owners is, from our perspective, highly unusual.”

Indeed. Last year, rumours suggested that the government wanted to privatize the CN Tower, but that plan seems to be dead in the water. After all, would the Harper government actually, um, green-light this proposal? Not even they want to stick it to Toronto that much.

• Vehicle Gateway Corp. to place $78 million bid to rename the CN Tower [CNW]
• No plan to change CN Tower’s name, owners say [Globe and Mail]

* Please note that this post has been updated since its original appearance