The renaming game

There’s talk about renaming Winnipeg's Bishop Grandin Blvd, which I am okay with. Now the debate has quickly turned to WHO it should be renamed for, (with very little input it seems from Indigenous peoples.)  My question is: why does every bridge and road major road need to be named for someone? Maybe let's just 'de-name' things rather than rename, at least for now.

(And for goodness sake, keep this away from city politicians. They're all consulting their manuals to find mayors and councillors that have nothing named after them yet. Politicians name things for colleagues or former colleagues in the hopes that, in turn, something will be named after them one day.)

History is messy and we need to come up with a set of rules for who’s in and out. Until we do, we should be careful about erecting statues or naming things for people.

For instance, Nellie McClung is controversial, but a hero of middle-class white ladies, so she gets a pass for things being named for her or statues of her erected.

A statue of Gandhi was put up at Forks when many African countries are tearing them down. He gets a pass because white rulers liked him and that’s been passed down to us.

Chief Peguis, who many things are named for, also has a bit of a dual legacy. A great friend and hero to the white people, but for some Indigenous people, he sold out.

Are we simply replacing one era's white heroes with another era's and thinking that it's okay because they are a different gender or colour? Maybe we will conclude that yes, it is, but we're not there yet.

War and soldiers open the whole can of worms that includes Woseley and many others.

At one time we likely wouldn’t have named anything for Sgt. Tommy Prince as naming things for vets who caused deaths was seen as unseemly. Saving the lives of others, such as the case of Andrew Mynarski, were okay. (The vote to rename Pine Street to Valour Road was not unanimous, as some felt it was glorifying war or people who caused the deaths of others.)

When is a soldier sent by his country to invade or fight a battle 'righteous', like your great uncle John who you commemorate on Remembrance Day, and when is he a bad person? Are Wosleley and your uncle John very different?

These are just some things I think we need to think about and discuss before we enter into an era of quick and fast renaming of things from people.

More thoughts on street naming.