Is it because some people in the neighbourhood feel the name is so ingrained in their identity? I ask these people, how many of you actually knew who Grandin was? If you didn’t care before, you shouldn’t care now. If you did know who Grandin was, how many of you tried to follow his footsteps or incorporate his values in your life? If Grandin is truly part of your identity, you should share something with the man himself. If you do not or never really cared to think about it, then I don’t get your sense of identity with that name. Changing the Grandin name should simply be like a house move where you have to change your address.
Or is it because some feel a decision was made before consulting the people? In which case, are you expecting council to consult you or have a plebiscite on every decision? I thought we elect council to vote on our behalf. We can share our opinions, but council has a responsibility to obtain all information before making decisions. So either you choose to get involved in all decisions or let council do their job. You can’t cherry pick the decisions you want in on. If you don’t like council’s decision on something that matters to you, that’s why we have elections. If you choose to vote based mainly on this matter that would truly baffle me; however, that is your right.
To those who feel we are erasing history, I ask you, what have you done to ensure history is preserved? Any time we try to help institutions and people that actually help preserve our history and culture, such as libraries, museums, schools, art, teachers, aids, etc., we have the same people in this city complaining not to use our tax dollars for such purposes. How dare we spend money on places that actually preserve our history and teach how to think critically. Yet, we have to care about changing a street sign because that will change our history? The Grandin name and all that it stands for will live on, if you choose to look for the places and people that actually preserve history. Street signs are not one of them, they are merely commemorative tokens.
Ultimately, I suspect most will only care about the cost. I get times are tough and perhaps changing street signs is not essential. But if you are truly worried about costs, there are a host of other costly ventures that deserve more of our concern, such as politicians using our money to fly down south to preach to their fan base. When such costly acts go rarely contested in this city, I don’t understand the contention on changing street signs.
I’ve been following this saga over the last little while, heard the comments during council and read various online posts. Rarely have I seen counterpoints to these comments, which I hope this letter covers.
Nathan Hebert, St. Albert
