Tisdale’s New Slogan Breaks My Farming Heart

/ viewfromtheranchporch

I am so very proud to have grown up on a farm just outside of Tisdale, Saskatchewan. I have always said Tisdale is the perfect sized rural town – small enough to still feel small town, large enough to have all the amenities you really need. Like many Saskatchewan towns, Tisdale thrives on agriculture. The schools are full of farm kids, and the businesses rely on farm families as customers. 

I travel across Western Canada speaking about agriculture, and why farmers need to share their stories with the public. I consider myself to be an Agvocate – someone who speaks positively for agriculture. One of the (many) reasons I still feel so connected to my hometown is that Tisdale, and it’s unconventional slogan, made me an Agvocate long before it was even a word. 


You see, Tisdale’s slogan “Land of Rape and Honey” was always something people talked about. There were great conversations had from Toronto to Saskatoon about it. I have been explaining the connection between rapeseed and canola for decades. 

Rapeseed and its more popular cousin canola (see the difference between the two here), grow incredibly well in the Tisdale area. Grain farmers have grown both crops here with huge success. Rapeseed and Canola are a beautiful yellow flowered crop. And guess who loves flowers? Yep, honeybees. Beekeepers are abundant in the Tisdale area, due in large part to vast fields of rapeseed and canola that the bees thrive on, producing some of the best darn honey in the world! (I may be a little biased here…) 

Tisdale has now changed their slogan. Their Land of Rape and Honey days are over. They have reacted to the questions and side-eye glances by removing the controversy, and it breaks my heart. It breaks my heart because I am a proud farmer. Proud of what I grow and proud to answer any questions about it. It breaks my heart because I am a proud Tisdale girl. Proud of my roots, proud of my homeland, and proud to answer any questions about it. And finally, it breaks my heart because I am a proud marketer. I love all things marketing, and how words can move mountains. And in my mind, this slogan change is not a good marketing move. 

The purpose of a town slogan is to make your town memorable. To make it stand out from the thousands of other small rural communities. I think everyone can agree that Land of Rape and Honey accomplished this. From PEI to BC, I have had people ask where I am from, and when I say Tisdale, more often than not they immediately respond with the infamous slogan. Love it, hate it, understand it or not, Tisdale’s slogan was MEMORABLE. It was unique, applicable, memorable and often spoke of. All things of a perfect marketing campaign. 

Can we say the same about their new slogan? 

11 thoughts on “Tisdale’s New Slogan Breaks My Farming Heart”

  2. It seems to me that changing the town slogan is the stupidest idea that came to pass because the municipality is either too lazy or too yuppie to stick with a good slogan. It will bite the town of Tisdale in Thebes forvthis dumb move.

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  3. I am a proud Tisdale resident and I have been almost my entire 39 years. I am so heartbroken with the change of the slogan to the humdrum & boring new one. It is certainly sad that the residents that have lived here for so long and stuck with this town through its ever changing decades.. we… the people of TIsdale never had a voice. Some new guy with a theory that the reason we don’t have a Tim Hortons is because our slogan was “confusing” well.. I will say this, our town will always be “The Land of Rape & Honey” nothing is confusing about it. What is more confusing is it is now the place where opportunity grows, sadly, it is released 2 weeks before we are losing 3 thriving businesses in this town. I hate the new slogan and I nor my family will ever use it. Thanks for the great read, “Fellow Tisdale Chick in Agriculture”. I am right there with you as a woman in the ag business and I agree with every word. It is SAD.

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  6. I agree, Land of rape and honey is memorable. Sure there were teenagers and adolescent adults whose minds were in the gutter, but they were easily ignored. The new slogan is pretty pedestrian and very people are not going to remember it or care about it. Tisdale is being run by a group of PC counsellors who seem to care what a couple of critics from Toronto think. Go back to the old slogan and once again become memorable.

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  7. Why now change the sign. The farmers around Tisdale grew so much rape , and had so many beehives that is where the slogan came from. Too bad they didnt try to preserve the history because that is what that sign was, history of the farmers around the area.

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    • I as well miss the slogan some things should be left alone it as other comentors said it made Tisdale stand out from the rest of town /cities the people in the know knew exactly what the slogan meant and for the others well they don’t matter keep their pea sized brain ideas to themselves as they have no idea seeing a country side covered in a yellow blanket along with a wonderful smell oh yeah the bureacrats thrive in smog which kills brain cells and in turn creates with no connection I was born in Tisdale moved to Saskatoon at an early age and loved spending summer holidays and weekends in and around Tisdale as far as the slogan land or rape and honey it will remain in my heart as long as I live and if certain people don’t understand it to bad its something you will never understand so piss off CHANGE IT BACK TO THE PREVIOUS SLOGAN who came up with the new lame ass slogan must have been paid off and not from this fine community

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