Thursday, August 6, 2009

Ontario Tourism

I've been to Thunder Bay a number of times.  I've also been to Kenora, Sault St Marie, and driven across southern Ontario on my way to Winnipeg.  I don't remember having any trouble communicating with the locals.  No language barrier to overcome.  I ordered pizza, bought petrol, and found lodging for the night.  I even figured out what those goofy chevrons on the road mean.  Nothing seemed lost in translation at the time.  So I am wondering how this one slipped through the office of tourism:

ROMANCE!
CONFLICT!
ADVENTURE!

This "slogan" is written on several billboards promoting tourism in Ontario.  My only guess is they first wrote it in French to plaster around Quebec and then had Gus who fills the ink at the print shop handle the translation for the English version.

I even looked up CONFLICT! in the thesaurus to maybe see what it should have said: 

DISCORD!
FIGHT!
WAR!
ENGAGEMENT!
ANIMOSITY!
HOSTILITY!

The best I can get is that it should have said ENGAGEMENT!  Like, "Hey, bring your loved one to Ontario, have some adventurous romance, and then propose marriage!"  It makes as much sense as "Virginia is for Lovers!"


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