'An explicit endorsement': Regina city council votes down motion to rename Dewdney Avenue
CTV
Regina city councilors voted down a motion to rename Dewdney Avenue Wednesday night.
Regina city councilors voted down a motion to rename Dewdney Avenue.
The motion, presented by councilors Andrew Stevens and Dan Leblanc, would have tasked administration to search for a new name for the street.
Just three councilors – Cheryl Stadnichuk, Stevens and Leblanc – voted in favour of renaming the street.
“I would call it an explicit endorsement of Edgar Dewdney,” Leblanc told reporters following Wednesday’s vote.
Edgar Dewdney was born in 1835 in England and died in 1916. He held many political positions in Canada after arriving in the country in 1859.
In 1881, Dewdney was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the NWT, a position he held in conjunction with that of Indian commissioner. One of his first significant acts in this role was the selection of Regina (Wascana) as the new territorial capital in 1882, according to the University of Saskatchewan.
Dewdney’s use of withholding rations as a device to impose state authority on First Nations is often cited when discussing his controversial status among Canada’s Indigenous population.
