Neil Peart family ‘on board’ with memorial
Neil Peart’s family is enthusiastically supporting plans for a memorial at Lakeside Park to honouring the famous drummer who grew up in St. Catharines.
As thousands of Rush fans from all over the world continue to add their names to a petition calling for a statue or plaque to be built at the park the band made famous in song, Peart’s nephew Jason Howe said the family has discussed the idea and are “fully on board” with such plans.
“They think it’s a great honour,” said Howe, a St. Catharines resident.
As of Sunday afternoon, more than 22,100 people had added their name to a petition calling on the city to honour Peart with a plaque or statue at the Port Dalhousie park.
Mayor Walter Sendzik plans to put forth a motion at an upcoming city council meeting to name the pavilion at Lakeside Park in Peart’s memory.
The celebrated percussionist and lyricist died of brain cancer on Jan. 7 at the age of 67.
Howe said he’s heard several ideas for memorials including a statue, plaque and naming the pavilion, nearby piers and city streets after Peart. He said he’d be supportive of any of those initiatives.
“I don’t think there’s a wrong way you can go wrong,” he said. “Just being recognized, I don’t think you can go wrong.”
Howe, however, has an idea of the type of memorial he’d like to see added to the park.
He said a bronze statue of his uncle sitting behind his drum set “would be fantastic, to be honest.” “That’d be the way to go.” Although Howe described his uncle as “very humble, that’s for sure,” he said a memorial being considered for him “is only fitting.”
Howe said fellow Rush band members Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee
have been honoured by the City of Toronto, where Lee-Lifeson Art Park was named after them in 2016. The park is at 223 Gladys Allison Pl., in North York, in the neighbourhood where both musicians grew up.
St. Catharines regional Coun. Kelly Edgar, who has been working on a memorial project with Tony McLaughlin — the St. Catharines resident who started the online petition — said he contacted Neil’s brother, Danny Peart, regarding a tribute.
“They’re fully behind it,” Edgar said.
Although Howe said Peart’s career kept him very busy, he said he saw his uncle several times a year at family gatherings.
“In between tours, he’s been down here. He’s been to all our places before. But usually, it’s more of meeting up at the cottage,” he said. “He was my uncle first, but it was neat to go see the rock star uncle afterwards … I’m the oldest nephew, so I had a lot of fun growing up with him. We got to spend a lot of time with him.”
And because Peart enjoyed such a long career, Howe said he was able to bring his own children to see Rush perform at their 40th anniversary concert in 2015.
“We actually have a picture somewhere of four generations of us at a Rush concert — my grandmother (Betty Peart), my mom (Judy Howe), me and my kids,” he said. “It was neat.”
In addition to the online petition for a memorial, an online campaign has also been started to help pay for it. The campaign has brought in $300 so far, in addition to funding pledges made through the petition.