Tag: amherst ns

Goodbye Lord Amherst, hello Ancestral Drive: process to change street name ‘impressive’ says prof

Ancestral Drive unveiling ceremony on Friday, February 10, 2023, with Amherst CAO Jason MacDonald, Community Living Director Shannon Bristol, Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (IDE) committee chair, Councillor Hal Davidson, IDE committee member Holly Martin, Councillor Dale Fawthrop, Deputy Clerk Natalie Leblanc, Fire Chief Greg Jones, Deputy Mayor Leon Landry, and transportation foreman, Jason McBurnie. Photo: Tom McCoag / Town of Amherst

Earlier this month, the town of Amherst renamed one of its streets. But the problematic name it removed is still in use in the town, because it is actually the town’s name: Amherst.

The town of Amherst, as well the street formerly called Lord Amherst Drive, were named after Lord Jeffery Amherst, the commander-in-chief of British forces in North America during the Seven Years’ War, which saw France surrender Canada to the British.

Portrait of Jeffery Amherst (1717-1797), by Joshua Reynolds, oil on canvas, 1765. Image: public domain

Amherst’s significant legacy has been tarnished as more becomes widely known about his policies regarding Indigenous people, which includes his suggestion in a 1763 letter to a subordinate, to deliberately infect the Indigenous people he was fighting with smallpox, through the distribution of infected blankets.

“We felt that it may be very good gesture for us as a community to recognize our diversity and our inclusivity by removing the name Amherst from the street, Lord Amherst Drive,” says Mayor David Kogon. The town council was inspired by a similar name change to a street in Montreal in 2019.… Continue