There has been a trend of late to re-name geographical locations. Why? Because a certain minority is being catered to, to appease past perceived wrong doings. Our beloved Queen Charlotte Islands have been re-named to Haida Gwaii. There is lobbying as we speak to rename Georgia Straight to Salish Sea.
But the latest one verges on the ridiculous.
The world renowned landmark of Vancouver, the icon of world class city parks, our very own Stanley Park is now up for a re-naming and has the endorsement of some weak kneed politicians at the first mention of the idea. In case you have not heard this, remember I do not make these things up. My imagination is just not wild enough. Lord Stanley would not be pleased to hear that his park will soon be called Xwayxway. That will be pronounced as kwhy-kway. I wonder if the native community would really be so offended if we said "no" to them just once? This verges on being a bad joke. Soon every non native sounding name in our province will have a name change and Salish will become our second language. The rationale here is that the spit of land known as Stanley Park was, for thousands of years, known as Xwayxway. Really? It was a chunk of bush on a rock and it had a name? I highly doubt that. Besides, if a few hundred natives knew it as Xwayxway for a few thousand years, that is a miniscule base of recognition compared to tens of millions of people knowing it as Stanley park for the last 100 years.
I say ixnay to Xwayxway.
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