Whitehorse residents continue to be deeply divided over the city's logo after city council announced its intention to retain the sternwheeler logo on Wednesday.

"It's very disappointing,” Rick Karp, president of the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce, said Thursday. "Lots of people really liked the symbolic horse.”

Karp said the logo could have been used to create a stronger identity for Whitehorse and the Yukon, and would have been ideal for representing northern interests Outside.

"A lot of the time you go down south and when they think of the North, they think Yellowknife. They're always confused,” he said.

The sternwheeler is inadequate, he said, because it doesn't represent Whitehorse.

"I had one person tell me they see that and they think of the Mississippi River, not the Yukon,” he said. "People think Mark Twain.”

The city originally went through an extensive branding exercise and contracted Waterloo, Ont. consultants eSolutions to create the logo for $48,000.

However, after a petition signed by 845 residents asked to keep the sternwheeler, the city opted to make a choice based on a survey.

There were 2,340 responses to the survey. A total of 66 per cent of the respondents favoured using the sternwheeler as the city's logo and 34 per cent chose the proposed stylized horse.

Meanwhile, 55 per cent of respondents chose "The Wilderness City” as the new tagline, 29 per cent selected "Above All Expectations” and 16 per cent favored using "Striving for Excellence”.

Karp said he has heard from members of the business community who feel the whole process was a waste of money, and the least the city could do is work with the logo which came out of the expensive process.

"‘Above All Expectations', that's an interesting slogan. People hear ‘The Wilderness City' and they say, ‘Oh, my God, they're in the bush, there's going to be bugs,'” he said. "They ask, ‘Do you live in igloos? Are your houses on stilts?'”

Gudrun Sparling, a long-time businesswoman whose family has lived in Whitehorse for more than 100 years, thinks the result should be simple.

"This should be very straightforward,” she told the Star Thursday.

"We live in Whitehorse. What could be more clear than using a white horse?”

Sparling said the sternwheelers are no longer relevant, because they are no longer in use. However, she doesn't like the logo created by eSolutions.

"You could hardly tell that it's a horse,” she said. "That particular logo is too modernistic. It wouldn't have a long shelf life.”

Many others in the community, however, are thrilled about the results of the survey.

"On a personal level, I feel really satisfied,” said Vanessa Brault, the resident who started the petition.

"I wasn't trying to fight city council. I was just trying to express something.”

Brault originally voiced her concerns when the stylized horse was near being adopted as the official logo, because she felt many residents didn't even know the process was taking place.

She said the stylized horse logo looked "too corporate” and didn't represent the community.

"From the start, I said if I'm wrong, I have no problem with that. But show me I'm wrong,” she said.

"Now I can show, without a doubt, I wasn't the only person who felt that way,” she said. "I didn't understand why we wouldn't stay with something that represents us so well.”

Local artist Jim Robb also supported the decision, as he feels it helps to commemorate Yukon's rich history.

"Naturally, the steamboat should have been picked,” he said Thursday. "We made a mistake right from the beginning by not doing something more about our historic shipyard.”

He acknowledged that Whitehorse's name came from the rough rapids that used to run by the city, but said that's no longer relevant now that the Whitehorse Rapids Dam has been built.

"That horse meant nothing to Yukoners,” he said. "You've got to ask Yukoners instead of saying, ‘What do people Outside think?'”

Both Brault and Robb believe the branding process should have involved local artists rather than eSolutions.

"Why didn't we spend $1,000 on a competition with local artists? Why are we doing this with a company that isn't even from here?” asked Brault. "This is about so much more than just the look of the logo.”

"Let the kids come up with something,” said Robb. "They probably could have come up with something better than that.”

Either way, the decision is ultimately up to the city council.

"These people are elected to do a job,” said Karp. "They should be strong enough to say what they're doing and do it. If we don't like it, then we don't vote for them next time.”

Sparling said that even though she feels strongly about the subject, she's resigned herself to the end result.

"I'm sure nothing can be done about it. But I think people should stop and think,” she said.

If the sternwheeler does become the official logo, Karp said the business community would live with it.

"We've got to make a decision and move forward. We have way more important things to deal with, like housing,” he said.

"What's the use of attracting people up here if they don't have anywhere to live?” he asked.

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