Petition launched to rename river honouring historical figure

KENTVILLE — A debate sweeping the country over the naming of monuments and places after contentious historical figures has found a new flashpoint in rural Nova Scotia.

A Scottish immigrant has launched a bid to change the name of the Cornwallis River, a roughly 50-kilometre tidal waterway that meanders through the Annapolis Valley, as well as the name of a bridge that crosses the river.

Isobel Hamilton of Centreville said Edward Cornwallis, the former governor of Nova Scotia who issued a bounty on Mi’kmaq scalps, also played a brutal role at the Battle of Culloden, violently suppressing the Jacobite rebellion in her Scottish homeland.

But she said her motivation isn’t about scrubbing Cornwallis’s name from history, but rather recognizing the province’s Indigenous roots. “Remembering history is about remembering all of history and there is not a lot to remember the Mi’kmaq history by,’’ said Hamilton, who moved to Nova Scotia about four years ago. Upon learning of the petition, the Town of Kentville covered up the name Cornwallis on a poster of a new bridge set to be built next year, noting it never intended to name the new crossing after the former governor of Nova Scotia. Instead, chief administrative officer Mark Phillips says Cornwallis Bridge was a working name and that council passed a motion two years ago to name the new span after Kentville’s longest-serving mayor, Wendell Phinney.

He says a rendition of the long-awaited new bridge was printed on a large sign to show locals the design, and the town regrets the confusion caused by the oversight of leaving the working name in place.