ADDRESS CHANGE UNDER FIRE
Lakeshore decision to be reviewed
After a testy and contentious meeting Tuesday night, Lakeshore council has decided to revisit the issue of adopting the town’s name as the mailing address in place of the names of all of its previous communities.
At a meeting on Sept. 11, town council voted to notify Canada Post of the change that would see the name Lakeshore supplant those of historic towns and villages such as Belle River, Maidstone, Comber and Puce.
Mark McKinlay, a Comber resident who began a petition a week ago after learning of the decision, told council he had amassed 3,175 signatures — or about 10 per cent of Lakeshore’s population — asking that council revoke its decision and revisit the issue.
“I think this has gone as well as it could go,” McKinlay said after the meeting. “I think the council and the mayor will look at what we’ve brought forward here tonight.” Dozens of angry residents packed the council chambers, hallway, and lawn and sidewalk outside. Before the meeting could start town CAO Tom Touralias took a head count and a large number of people were asked to leave to observe the fire code capacity of 95. After a passionate address that saw McKinlay verbally spar with Coun. Steven Wilder, it was agreed that the issue will be dealt with at the next meeting on Oct. 11, which will be held at the Atlas Tube Centre to accommodate the crowd. Dave Larue, a Stoney Point resident who also addressed council, said people still have deep attachments to their historic town names. “The branding was going fine and the Lakeshore township people accepted it, it looked great,” Larue said after the meeting.
“It looked fantastic. But man, when you start talking about your personal identities, your individual communities, and that possibly going away, that’s where they crossed the line.
“I don’t believe they are ever going to be able to change the names of the small towns in our communities because the people aren’t going to let it happen.”
Larue said it would also be a nuisance to residents to have the change their addresses on everything from drivers’ licences to credit cards. “It would be like everybody lost their wallet,” said Larue. “Everybody’s got to get everything new to accommodate the new address.” He said the number of people who came out to the meeting is indicative of how the issue has struck a chord. “This issue is driving people to become political and to be involved in the issue,” said Larue. Jean Tremblay of Stoney Point brought a sign to the meeting that read “Pointe-aux-Roches not Lakeshore.”
He noted that Tuesday was FrancoOntarian Day and wore a singlet and scarf with Franco-Ontarian designs.
“It means culture identity to me,” said Tremblay. “I grew up there, my parents grew up there, my brother was mayor of the township of Tilbury North, which includes Pointe-aux-Roches.” He lamented that the FrancoOntarian identity is “being removed from this area,” noting Pointe-aux-Roches is now Stoney Point and Belle Riviere is now Belle River.
“To say you can keep your town name but your address will be Lakeshore doesn’t work for me,” said Tremblay.