Town of Lunenburg renames Cornwallis Street to Queen Street

Some councillors for the Town of Lunenburg are anticipating backlash to the new name chosen for Cornwallis Street.

Initial proposals called for a name that honoured African Nova Scotian and Mi'kmaw figures, place names and words from Lunenburg's history. But on Tuesday, following the results of a public survey, council voted 4-3 for "Queen Street."

"I think there's going to be some backlash and some unhappy people. Changing it from Cornwall to Queen is not very indicative of what the anti-racism committee was hoping to accomplish," Coun. Melissa Duggan, who had chaired the committee, told CBC News on Wednesday.

Queen Street was one of nine names on the shortlist because it followed the naming conventions of other nearby streets: King, Duke and Prince. It was also the only name of the nine that wasn't connected to Mi'kmaw culture.

During the meeting, Deputy Mayor Ed Halverson said he couldn't reconcile naming a street "where we want to remove the name of somebody who was representative of the Crown for tremendous acts and then rename it after the very crown he was representing. It makes no sense."

Halverson said "Queen" was a "slap in the face to our Indigenous neighbours" and tried to get it removed from the list of names.

He told CBC News on Wednesday that felt the renaming process was an opportunity for the town to support the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

"We don't get those opportunities in municipal governments very often. We can make proclamations, we can do flag raising, but to actually effect meaningful change and, in a significant way say we do support efforts to make amends for past wrongs, I think that's where we've fallen down on this decision," Halverson said.

Lunenburg resident Sal Falk said she was a little shocked by council's decision.

"I had seen the data, but I thought council would have a more nuanced opinion as to what the ultimate decision should be," Falk told CBC. 

"I'm not saying the way the community consultation was done was wrong, I just think that, in light of the reason the town embarked on this process of wanting to rename Cornwallis and why Canada as a whole is reckoning with colonial names in our streets and places, they would have reexamined the options available to them before deciding."

Nearly 350 residents voted, including 276 town residents — 25 Cornwallis Street residents among them — and 65 non-residents.

A pie chart of the vote results, which was open to residents and non-residents of the town, showed 35 per cent were in favour of Queen Street. The next most popular choice, Merligueche — a Mi'kmaw word for "whitecaps which topped the waves" — had 17 per cent of the vote.

The results of votes cast by residents showed 36 per cent in favour of Queen, with the second most popular choice again being Merligueche at 17 per cent. The most popular vote among non-residents was for E'se'katik, the original Mi'kmaw place name for Lunenburg, meaning "place of clams," with 27 per cent. Queen and Merligueche were tied in third place with 12 per cent of the vote.