The horse or the boat – what's more popular?

Residents could know by the end of the month.

The city's most recent branding survey wrapped up Friday. While the final count has yet to be tallied, city spokesman Matthew Grant said today it appears between 2,500 and 3,000 surveys were filled out – 1,923 of those online.

"It's unbelievable,” Grant said of the heavy response, arguing it's one of the largest public responses to an issue the city has seen in recent years.

Over the next day or two, city staff will be entering the information from the written surveys into the city database to get the final number and see exactly what all responses stated, he said.

The survey questioned whether residents preferred the proposed city logo featuring a white horse or the current sternwheeler logo.

It came after a significant outcry from the community over the proposed white horse logo brought forward by Waterloo, Ont. consultants eSolutions, which was contracted for $48,000 by the city for rebranding.

The initiative was part of an economic development charette held last year. The business community argued the city needs an overall brand, rather than the several logos and taglines – including the sternwheeler, among others – it currently uses.

The territory put $50,000 toward the work while the city put in $10,000 along with managing the project.

After meetings with stakeholders and a general survey of the public about what they thought of their community, eSolutions proposed three taglines and logos including the white horse and the tagline "Above All Expectations”, which proved to be the most popular of the three.

Once proposed, residents began calling on the city to keep its sternwheeler logo, with many stating they didn't realize the branding initiative was underway.

A petition bearing 845 signatures was presented to council calling on the city to keep the sternwheeler.

That prompted the city to go ahead with the latest survey, which asked residents to choose between the sternwheeler and the horse logos along with a favourite tagline.

This morning, Grant said from the responses he's seen so far, there's no clear winner, though he expects to have a better idea once the hard copy responses are entered into the city's database.

After looking at the results, Grant said he will be presenting them at a council and senior management meeting, likely within the next two weeks.

There, the results, as well as what the next steps are, will be discussed before a formal recommendation is brought forward to the next council meeting.