Residents choose Wild Harbour as new name for community on P.E.I.'s North Shore

Warning: This story contains language that some may find offensive.

Residents' votes were cast and counted Monday, and Savage Harbour could soon be known as Wild Harbour.

The name of the community on P.E.I.'s North Shore was flagged as part of a national initiative to identify place names considered outdated or demeaning.

The process began in 2022 when Abegweit First Nation requested the community be renamed. In 2024, the federal government renamed the wharf in the area, also at the request of the First Nation. It's now called Crowbush Cove Wharf Small Craft Harbour.

The province held a series of meetings with residents late last year to narrow down a list of potential new names for Savage Harbour, along with the community's bay and main road.

Monday's vote by ranked ballot resulted in Wild Harbour being chosen on the third vote above four other options — Heritage Harbour, Seaside Harbour, Shoal Harbour and Wild Wind Harbour.

Ryan Pineau, the provincial tax commissioner and P.E.I.'s representative on the Geographical Names Board of Canada, said the selection will now go to an advisory committee, which will submit the chosen name to provincial cabinet for approval. That's expected to happen within the next few months.

“It's nice to see the process through,” Pineau said, adding that when the renaming request was made, the province had to build a method to do so “from scratch.”

“That has been a long process to try and get it right and ensure that the community was really the centre of that process and that they had input and feedback into that naming."

The final vote was delayed from its initial date of Dec. 1 after residents decided more consultation was needed on the original shortlist of names. There were also concerns with the voting process, including the public ballot method that was to be used at the time.

Community resident Stephanie Compton said she has family ties to the area going back to when her grandparents settled there from Germany after the Second World War.

She now lives in her grandparents’ homestead, and her sister lives across the road.

“In the end, we ended up picking a name that was synonymous with the original name, which I think appealed to the majority of the community members,” Compton said.

“The name Savage Harbour, to me, always meant ‘wild’ anyway. So it doesn't feel like a major switch.”