What’s in a name

Poll participants prefer ‘city hall’

The centre of government in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality should be known as city hall, according to an informal survey conducted by the Cape Breton Post.

In light of a council debate this week over the name of the building that houses the seat of the municipal government, we asked readers if they preferred the new name of city hall or the civic centre, as it had previously been known.

Almost 52 per cent of voters said they preferred city hall, while just under 42 per cent said they liked the old name.

More than six per cent of those who took part in the survey suggested their own names, some of which were obviously tongue-incheek attempts at humour.

Serious suggestions included Cape Breton Regional Civic Centre, CBRM Centre and Municipal Affairs Building.

A chance to comment on the naming process brought forward some interesting opinions.

Dannie Brown wrote that neither the new, nor the old name was totally “bang on.”

“If the office represents the entire CBRM and not just Sydney, then how can it be called city hall,” he wrote.

“The term civic centre is more often used to identify a recreational facility in my experience. On the other hand, it wouldn’t be very palatable to call it the regional municipality office, or would it?”

A commenter identifying themselves as L.H. MacKinnon wondered about the reason for the name change.

“Not enough real issues in the municipality,” the commenter wondered.

“The building was called the civic centre since it was built. I see nothing wrong with it remaining that way.”

Mona Fraser wrote that she has always said “I’m going to city hall” while Theresa Axworthy questioned why the name was changed without public discussion.

Allister MacDonald commented that if Sydney “wants to be a city again,” let’s “take our towns out of this trap.”

“We are a municipality,” wrote Bill Smith. “Hence the name should be or could be municipality or municipal hall.”

The majority of the votes in the poll were registered in Canada, while four came from the United States and a further four from an undisclosed location.

A total of 190 people took part in this poll as of Friday afternoon.

Go to http://poll.fm/5rjqz — to view the survey.