Dear Editor,
Mr. Douglas Sweiger’s letter in your June 15-29 edition, while fair enough in its own way, perpetuates some misconceptions about the proper role of public consultation in matters of this kind.
Public consultation, properly understood, is not an occasion for a public body — in this case Parks Canada — to hear from people with entrenched points of view, on either side of an issue. It is an occasion for the public body to hear from people about how the issue might reasonably be decided.
In this case there is plenty of room for polarization. Bruce Peninsula is a long-standing, honoured name, with roots in the area’s story of pioneer settlement and its surrounding politics. Saugeen Peninsula is a traditional, honoured name, with roots in the roots that were here before those roots took hold. I see no point in a public consultation that would quickly degenerate into a shouting match between people at the poles, yielding hurt feelings on both sides.
The idea that a Wendat name should be chosen is, of course, a red herring. Any naming claim the Wendat may have had in the mid-seventeenth century had been erased for two hundred years or more when the naming was done.
Whatever the situation may have been years ago, Parks Canada need no longer consider itself an agency that was “allowed to enter and engage as a part of our community” any more than the rest of our people who were not born here, including myself. Parks Canada is here, a valued institution and valued people who contribute to our community in many ways, economically, socially, culturally, and environmentally. Parks Canada has no interest and no need to trigger a polarizing public discussion, nor have local residents any interest in watching them do it.
I favour the hyphenated solution myself, as respectful to both poles: Saugeen-Bruce. If Parks Canada considers it serves their responsibilities best to acknowledge the historical precedent, then so be it. They have my support, on cultural grounds. Not too many words, though: Saugeen-Bruce National Park. The “Peninsula” is redundant.
Yours respectfully,
Paul Conway
