Joanne Chianello: It’s time to honour our colourful first PM, Ottawa Citizen, November 15, 2011
Bob Plamondon is nothing if not tenacious.
In the spring of 2010, the Ottawa author launched a campaign to have Wellington Street renamed in honour of Sir John A. Macdonald. But despite securing the backing of two former prime ministers and various cabinet ministers, and the thumbs up from a number of respected historians, Plamondon’s plan was thwarted by those who rose up in defence of the Iron Duke’s place in Ottawa history, which included ordering up the Rideau Canal.
The election of Jim Watson as mayor put the idea to rest. Watson said he wasn’t interested in changing history “for no valid reason” and that city council has “more pressing matters to deal with other than changing street names.”
But Plamondon, who in addition to writing books is a public policy consultant and Conservative insider, would not give up. He has shifted his sights westward, proposing that the blandly named Ottawa River Parkway be re-christened after Sir John A. Just this past weekend, Plamondon launched an online campaign to drum up support (www.ipetitions.com).
I’m not a historian or a cabinet minister, but I live a block away from the parkway, for what it’s worth, and I’m all for the name change.
Renaming Wellington Street never sat well with me, since I sympathize with sticklers for history of the sort Plamondon only half-jokingly dismisses as “the archivists.”
But it’s ludicrous that we don’t have a major piece of infrastructure in the capital dedicated solely to John A. (The five-block MacDonald Street in the Golden Triangle hardly counts, and is spelled wrong anyway). The combo Macdonald-Cartier naming of the airport isn’t good enough. There was only one first prime minister of Canada.
I’m sure I won’t be alone in supporting Plamondon this time around.
From a practical point of view, virtually no civic addresses would be affected. (Although the Canadian War Museum sits at the eastern end of the Parkway, its official address is 1 Vimy Place.) From an esthetic and symbolic perspective, the parkway is appropriately scenic and leads toward Parliament Hill.
And more important, naming this route after Macdonald will honour one of this country’s most intriguing prime ministers. We need reminding of that. Even Plamondon says that before researching for his history of Canada’s Conservative leaders — Blue Thunder: The Truth about Conservatives from Macdonald to Harper — he knew just three basic things about Macdonald: he was Canada’s first PM, he reconciled the English and French, and he drank a lot.
I’d say that’s at least one thing more than most Canadians could say about Macdonald, who placed a miserable eighth in CBC’s Greatest Canadians contest a few years back. Right behind Don Cherry. (I suspect recent remarks from the country’s best-known hockey commentator might allow Macdonald to leap past him if the contest were held today.)
There’s seems to be something of a Macdonald resurgence these days, aside from Plamondon’s campaign for a road-renaming. The biopic John A: Birth of a Country aired on CBC in September to critical praise, even though it was poorly advertised. And a few weeks ago, former Liberal prime minister John Turner told anchor Peter Mansbridge that Macdonald was the best PM Canada ever had, relegating his own Grit predecessor Wilfrid Laurier to second place.
Plamondon would do well to highlight Old Blue Eyes’ support for the renaming. Because if I have any reticence over backing this plan, it’s the partisan one-upping that the renaming could set in motion. If Ottawa ends up with a Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, will the Ontario Liberal government want to, say, dump the “Queensway” in favour of the Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien Expressway?
Even more worrisome are the federal Tories, currently enjoying a majority.
They seem mighty pleased to name stuff after Conservatives, in particular John Diefenbaker. The feds just christened the former city hall building on Sussex Drive, and announced in the 2008 budget that they were replacing the aging CCGS Louis St. Laurent icebreaker with a new $721-million one called the — you guessed it — CCGS John. G. Diefenbaker.
So this has the potential to get a little silly.
Officially, the decision on whether to change the name rests with the National Capital Commission, which has authority for the Parkway, which was built, more or less, in the late 1960s. The timing couldn’t be better. The NCC has a visioning project underway, asking Canadians how they’d like to see their capital develop over the next 50 years. For those of us who believe 50 years is a bit much, the NCC assures us that it will also develop a brisker 10-year action plan.
Plamondon wants the name change in place by 2015, the 200th anniversary of Macdonald’s birth. That’s a tight timeframe to do anything of significance in this town, but with public support — and Plamondon’s proven perseverance — honouring Confederation’s most famous father may be something we can get done quickly.