While other fat-cat cities in Canada seemed more logical choices for the coveted Boardwalk spot for the new edition of Monopoly Canada, southern Ontario’s feisty Chatham-Kent landed on the prized piece of real estate.

Chatham’s win was not a roll of the dice.

Earlier this year Hasbro Canada asked Canadians to vote online for the cities they thought worthy of a square on the Canadian version of the 75-year-old board game. For six weeks, people were allowed to vote once a day for their top 20 cities. A million votes were cast in the end, and Chatham-Kent got 65,000 of them.

“I’m on Cloud 9,” enthused Chatham-Kent mayor Randy Hope moments after the announcement.

Chatham-Kent comprises 23 rural communities which amalgamated in 2000.

“This campaign brought us together,” said the 50-year-old mayor. “The local media and the whole community came together.”

But Hope said Chatham-Kent, with a population of 110,000, is better than Boardwalk.

“The real estate is not that expensive here and the quality of life is high.” Hope says the area is known for automobiles and agriculture and with 453 wind turbines, it is fast becoming a hub for a variety of renewable resources.

It’s no longer “that place between London and Windsor.”

Geographically speaking, at 2,400 square kilometres, Chatham-Kent is bigger than Toronto.

But people in more populated cities, including Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver, sat on their hands, while small towns such as Saint Jean sur Richelieu, the Quebec town which captured the prestigious Park Place, really made an effort. The mayor there made public appearances dressed as Mr. Monopoly and in Chatham-Kent, they created a Facebook site to mobilize voters.

The new, $39.99 Canadian version of Monopoly goes on sale June 28, in English and French.

The colour-coded world of Monopoly real estate is rated in descending order from ritzy dark blue hot spots like Boardwalk and Park Place to low-rent browns like Baltic Avenue and Mediterranean Avenue.

The Canadian edition places Chatham-Kent and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu at the top of the heap while Calgary, Sarnia and Edmonton appear in respectable green.

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Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver had to settle for light blue – just one category above brown – which went to Beauceville and Banff.

A spokesperson for Tourism Toronto was unavailable for comment because the whole department was busy with the G20 summit.