Why do some people find it so easy to pick on Edmonton?

A Globe and Mail columnist rippled the seas of social media outrage on Friday with a column suggesting Edmonton is an unfit host for the opening game of soccer’s Women’s World Cup. Yahoo sports writer Andrew Bucholtz makes a compelling case for why Globe columnist Cathal Kelly was misguided and most likely trolling, but the larger question is, why would Edmonton be considered such an easy target?

Kelly’s column spends ten paragraphs bashing the city of Edmonton. Most of the characterizations are outlandish - comparing the city to Sunderland, England; Timmins, Ont. and Rimouski, Que. At one point, he anthropomorphizes the city and places it as if in a class photo:

Let’s be fair: Halifax wishes it were Edmonton, with all its sports teams and jobs. And while the column has been described as Toronto-centric, Kelly wouldn’t have written this column about Vancouver or Montreal.

So why is it so easy to pick on Edmonton? It’s an issue the city itself is grappling with. Once called the “City of Champions,” Edmonton is in the midst of a re-branding exercise that shuns nicknames in favour of earnest storytelling and modernizing the city’s identity. In April, the city voted to scrap the “City of Champions” slogan from its welcome signs. While some saw the slogan as anachronistic (it fit better in the 1980s, when the Oilers and Eskimos were winning titles galore, than it does now, when the only thing the Oilers win is draft lotteries), the real motivation, according to the councilor who proposed the change, is a wholesale updating of Edmonton’s welcome branding.

"I'm trying to move the needle here…I think we need to refresh these signs … I think we need a blank slate,” Michael Oshry told the CBC.

And it’s true: the signs bear a strong resemblance to the opening credits of Circle Square, a TV show that went off the air in 1986.

The city isn’t looking for a better catchphrase. Mayor Don Iveson said the city is in a “post-tagline era.” Instead, the focus is on emphasizing all the great things about modern-day Edmonton, and showing them off to tourists, investors, and potential future residents. It’s a selling job that many think hasn’t been Edmonton’s strong point in years past.

In a video for “Make Something Edmonton,” a project that encourages Edmontonians to build something unique to the city, civic leaders talked about why Edmonton undersold itself in the past.

“What's embarrassing now is to look back at the times when we said 'we’re not Calgary,' 'Let’s be more like New York' - we should just be Edmonton,” said author Satya Brata Das.

“It’s almost like we’re embarrassed by our successes; we’re so understated that it hurts,” said Tony Franceschini, former CEO of Stantec, a billion-dollar design and consulting firm based in Edmonton.

Brad Ferguson, president of the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, said the city is in year two of a five-year makeover process that aimed at three areras: improving how Edmontonians speak about their city, attracting millenials in the entrepreneurial space, and marketing to the domestic and international corporate audience. He said Edmonton’s programs have been very well-received, and he doesn’t get frustrated when a column like Kelly’s takes misguided shots at the city.

“From my perspective it’s embarrassing, not for Edmonton, but for the Globe and Mail,” he said.

“What I love about it is Edmontonians’ reactions. Five years ago they would have been up in arms. Today they deal with it with humour. We’re able to measure our self-esteem change on it.”

Derek Keenan is the head coach of the Edmonton Rush lacrosse team. Keenan commutes to his job from his home in Oshawa, Ont., where he works for the city of Oshawa, So he gets to see the city as an outsider and as a local. Keenan said Canadians outside Edmonton don’t realize that it’s a hard-working population that “also love their community and carry a lot of pride in it.”

“I think there is a ton of diversity and that what makes it what it is,” he said.

While the “City of Champions” slogan is on its way out, that shouldn’t be misread as capitulation or settling by the city. Keenan’s lacrosse team heads into the weekend hoping to win its first Natinoal Lacrosse League championship, to go along with the 2014 Memorial Cup in Edmonton’s trophy case alongside all the Oilers and Eskimos trophies of old.

“I think there is one common theme here,” Keenan said.

“They like winners, and we hope to provide them with a championship now.”