Dennis Hull used to play hockey with the Chicago Black Hawks. He is the brother of Bobby Hull, who was called the Golden Jet until his hair fell out. When Dennis Hull retired from hockey, he embarked on another career that likely brought him more fame and more standing ovations than his hockey career did. 

      He became a speaker at sports dinners and conventions and anywhere they wanted to pay him. He developed into one of the funniest speakers ever. Dennis used to spend a lot of time speaking at sports dinners in Saskatchewan. Curling legend Sam Richardson and myself would often travel with Dennis to these dinners, and even though he gave virtually the same speech every time, we never tired of it. The dinners are held all over the place, to break up the long winters and to raise money for whatever projects small towns need to raise money for. Dennis loved Saskatchewan. And, he loved to kid around about how flat Saskatchewan was. He would always toss out the line, "Saskatchewan is an Indian word that means you can watch your dog run away for three days." 

      That line actually seemed to fit much of Saskatchewan's sprawling landscape quite well. 

      People are always looking for words that best describe the places they live. I don't know why this is necessary, but everybody does it. Saskatchewan's slogan is Land of Living Skies. Alberta's is something to do with Wild Roses. 

      Cities go through the same nickname traumas. New York is The Big Apple. Las Vegas is Sin City. Hollywood is Tinseltown. Calgary is Cowtown. Saskatoon is The Hub City. 

      Regina has spent most of its life trying to find a neat nickname. It started out as Pile of Bones. It was the Queen City of The Plains. There was I love Regina, which really was stolen from New York City and didn't cost $400,000. 

      Getting to Regina's newest slogan did cost the city $400,000. Some Winnipeg consulting firm came up with Infinite Horizons. It sounds like a new senior citizens' home. I mean, I could have come up with something for half the price. 

      What started all of this was the city decided to conduct a survey around the country to get a handle on what Regina's image was. Was it a bad image? Was it a good image? Nobody knew. They still don't. What the survey said was, Regina has no image at all. We're just out there, and nobody cares. 

      Infinite Horizons is supposed to change all of that. That handle - Infinite Horizons - is going to be splashed everywhere, and the theory is, when all those people around the world see the words Infinite Horizons, they are going to move here, start new businesses, and all that good stuff. 

      I am not here to rain on anybody's parade. But I can't see this working. I don't know of anybody moving to a city because of its slogan. The closest might be Sin City. That could attract some, and seeing as Las Vegas was once the fastest growing city in the United States, maybe there was something to it. 

      Maybe Infinite Horizons will do the trick, and hopefully the campaign to get new people and business here will work. Maybe, all those other people out there will find out what we all know about Regina and want to experience the same joy that we do working and living here. 

      But I can see one hurdle that has to be overcome. I asked six people the other day what the word "infinite" meant. Only two of them were right on. One had no clue. And, the others were rather vague. 

      If they really wanted something that would inspire people to come here, maybe something like "Free Gas" or "Free Booze" would have worked.