You would probably be hard pressed in this day and age to find someone who has not played Monopoly. From its invention in the 1930s by Charles Darrow, more than one billion people have played the game, making it the most played commercial board game in the world.
That's why there was a lot of hype and excitement in January when Monopoly fans were invited to go to a website to cast ballots for their favourite Canadian cities to be included in a new Monopoly Canada game.
However, while Maritime centres such as Moncton, Halifax, Charlottetown, Fredericton, Saint John and Cape Breton were part of the national vote, none of them received enough votes to be among the 20 cities included in the game when results were announced last week.
While St. John's is being included, there's nothing east of Quebec City on the game that came out on Canada Day, and as much as officials from game producer Hasbro Canada may try to convince Canadians that this latest edition of the game celebrates Canada's dynamic cultures, sights and the history of this country, it is too bad that there will be no Maritime flavour.
Not only were the Martimes left out, but so too were large sections of the Prairies. There's lots of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia, but not much of anything else and that in itself has to be a disappointment.
Barrington Street in Halifax and Main Street in Moncton may not exactly be Park Place material when compared to real estate costs in some other parts of this country, those streets and others in our Maritime cities should have gotten more consideration.
While the vote is a case of democracy in action, officials with Hasbro should have found some way to weigh the voting so smaller cities would have a fighting chance against their larger cousins.
Instead, what could have been a source of a national pride - at least among gaming enthusiasts - is likely to strike out in the areas of the country that have been left out.
