Your vote could put London in the game

[ldoto]

NEW MONOPOLY: Canadians can vote once daily till Feb. 7

By PATRICK MALONEY, THE LONDON FREE PRESS

Last Updated: 11th January 2010, 10:51am


That's the advice of the city's tourism boss as a competition launches today to pick 20 Canadian communities -- the Forest City is among the contenders -- to fill the squares on an updated Canadian version of the classic family game.

"Anything that gives us a positive image and puts a positive light as a community is always good," said John Winston, general manager of Tourism London.

"Why say no to something that would give us some good, positive exposure?"

That's not to say a Monopoly spot would produce a tangible tourism boost for London -- "I've never, quite frankly, seen any of these (similar) games generate a major economic benefit for any city," Winston says -- but he hopes Londoners get behind the idea.

"Let's have fun with it and see where the cards fall."

With 65 selected cities competing, Canadians can vote online once daily from today until Feb. 7 to get their city into the top 20. The city that gets the most votes will fill the high-rent space traditionally held by Boardwalk.

Though there will be a few Canadian-inspired tweaks, the game will ultimately be the same as the classic that's sold more than 250 million copies since it was created 75 years ago.

"It's a fun thing," Marisa Pedatella of Hasbro Canada said of the competition. "This is going to be a permanent Canadian edition -- it's not a one-off -- so you're getting your mark on there."

If a similar previous competition is any indication, the voting could be intense, Pedatella says: A world Monopoly game was launched in 2008 with three Canadian cities among those from around the globe vying for board space.

Residents in the Canadian cities -- Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal -- voted enough to get all three on the game.

How to vote To vote for London, or any other city, to be included in a new edition of the board game Monopoly, go to

http://ec2-174-129-107-20.compute-1....om/en_CA/world

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