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.
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.
“It was a fairly lengthy process,” says Kogon, which started with council deciding to change the name, and then forming an Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity Committee to take on the challenge of choosing a new name. “Their recommendation was Ancestral Drive, and council agreed with that wholeheartedly,” says Kogon.
After allowing nine months for businesses on the street to prepare for the name change, new signs for Ancestral Drive, which runs from the Amherst Mall over to the Super 8 Motel, were erected this month.
Dr. Lauren Beck calls the renaming, “exciting news.” Beck is Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at Mount Allison University and holds the Canada Research Chair in Intercultural Encounter. She has quite literally written the book on the process of naming and renaming places in Canada, with Canada’s Place Names and How to Change Them, published by Concordia University Press in 2022.
Beck says the way Amherst went about changing a street name was impressive, in particular its creation of a committee formed to help address inclusivity issues in general. “It’s an example that other communities could consider following,” says Beck.
Changing a street name “is actually rather straightforward,” says Beck, because municipalities generally have clear jurisdiction over street names. The main challenge is public engagement and acceptance. “When somebody wants to rename your street, the one where you’ve lived or grown up all your life, some people may struggle with that sort of name change,” says Beck, “which I think is a broader concern when it comes to changing names that I often hear about.”
Hear CHMA’s full conversation with Dr. Lauren Beck here:
In the case of Amherst, there was public appetite to change the name of Lord Amherst Drive. But, says Kogon, only one person has put forward the idea of changing the name of the town itself, which is also named after Lord Jeffery Amherst.
“There was no willingness on the part of council to change the name of the town,” says Kogon. “The impact that would have on the community, the local businesses, the private citizens with changing the name and everybody’s address, we just felt that it was not feasible to do that.”
There are places that have chosen a name change, says Beck, giving the example of Asbestos, Quebec, which is now called Val-des-Sources, after a 2020 referendum. “They decided to rebrand themselves, so that businesses and new residents would feel more comfortable living there and operating there,” says Beck.
Names of towns and communities are governed by provincial toponymy offices, as was the case with the process to choose Tantramar as the name the new amalgamated municipality of Sackville, Dorchester and other communities. In that case, a local community chose the name, but within guidelines provided by the province, such as no names of people.
“Not naming places after people is probably a very safe approach,” says Beck, citing examples like Amherst and Cornwallis, historical figures whose accomplishments are being re-assessed by current values.
Sackville street names study
Last year, Beck led a class of second year Mount Allison students on a research study of street names in Sackville. The students examined all 134 streets in the community and noted how many represented people, and what groups were represented. “We wanted to understand how many were named for men, people of colour, indigenous people, women, and so forth,” says Beck. “We found, perhaps not surprisingly, that very few names reflected women,” says Beck, despite the fact that Sackville’s population has been slightly more than half women, historically.
“As a result, we decided to do some policy research across the country to understand what kind of measures [a community like Sackville] might wish to take in terms of its future naming program,” says Beck. The group didn’t recommend changing current street names, but rather focussing on future names.
“While we thought it was problematic that there was such an over representation of white men,” says Beck, “we did not necessarily recommend running out and changing any names.” There weren’t any “awful sort of names” says Beck, that would require swift action. “There were no Colonization Roads, for instance, in our community, and that’s a common street name across the country.”
What the class did recommend was a diversified approach to new name, which included, “identifying priority areas for future names that would allow people who are, say women, to see themselves more included in the toponymy around the region.”
Beck is continuing her work and is currently developing a model policy that could work for various communities, adapted to their particular values.
“If we’re thinking strategically about how communities can grow and the sustainability of communities,” says Beck, “place names may not seem very important at first blush. But ultimately, if you want to encourage newcomers, for example, to come and establish themselves in your community, it would be great for them to see a piece of themselves already represented within the community, whether it is a street name, or some other form of representation.”
“I think that’s the sort of step that Amherst as a community is taking,” says Beck, “and it’s encouraging.”
