Plans to replace the aging “Toronto” sign in Nathan Phillips Square have the residents of a small community east of the city calling on Mayor John Tory to send them the old one — or, at least, most of it.

Dave Stender is a former resident of Orono, about an hour’s drive east of Toronto in Clarington. He said that the idea just came to him, so he decided to post about it in the community’s public Facebook group.

“I grew up in Orono 25+ years ago and the town has never left my heart,” Stender wrote in a Facebook message to the Star. “I just had that light-bulb moment, when I saw the information of the sign being discussed to be upgraded.”

After four years of wear and tear, city officials announced last week that Toronto is planning to replace its current sign with a more durable model. The current sign was installed in 2015 for the Pan Am Games, and has become a city fixture despite being originally intended to only last for a few weeks.

Mark Rutherford, an Orono resident, said there has been an outpouring of support for the plan is his 1,100-person-strong community, where many people grew up joking that Orono is just Toronto without the Ts.

“We’d love to have the opportunity to recycle that sign and use it in our community for a bit of a tourist attraction and a boost to our local economy,” he said. “We've become more of a bedroom community where we used to be sort of a thriving community that was self-sustainable.”

Rutherford noted that hundreds of thousands of people used to pass through the town, but over time Orono has lost its grocery store, an LCBO and a bank branch as other local establishments continue to struggle.

Tory told CTV on Wednesday that he is willing to talk to Orono residents, but said he sees the sign as “something that shouldn’t be broken up,” adding that he wants “more love” for the city.

“Maybe what we can do is to have different colours for the Ts and for the rest of the letters so that it can spell Orono and also Toronto,” Tory told CTV, “because I think we need more love out in Clarington and in Orono for Toronto.”

Rutherford said Orono is willing to take the sign as it is, Ts and all, “and keep the goodwill of the sign going.”

The push to donate the sign attracted the attention of TSN sports anchor Dan O’Toole. “Please @JohnTory make this happen,” he wrote on Twitter. “Let’s be honest ... who else would be able to use it? We will take extremely good care of it. We promise!!!”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Ilya Bañares is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @ilyaoverseas

Read more about: