this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2024

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Support for changing B.C.'s name on the decline: poll (www.cowichanvalleycitizen.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

im in the camp that if there was a good local name, and it was polled, i would totally vote in favor of a rename. I've lived in a couple towns now with native names, and really prefered it over.. Campbell River for example.

That said, this is so far down my list of priorities...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Yeah I'd support a name change to something better, but I'm not much interested in a discussion of what 'better' is.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Personally I don't care for it is or isn't a native name, but I do dislike British Columbia. I can live with it but if it were out up to a vote to change it I would say go for it.

I hate that it's:

So long
Two words
Refers to other geographical places

I would much prefer a simpler name like Alberta or Manitoba. Fuck Saskatchewan though I need to pull out the dictionary for that one half the time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Definitely agree about point C

We are not British, not related to miss Columbia, republic of Columbia, ect

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Ooooh BC -> C and DC -> C

Me: I’m going to Columbia. Them: Canada, US or SA?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I say we piss literally everyone off and change it to British Colombia.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

How about United Kingdom's Colombia?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

How about English Colombia?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

They aren't suggesting dropping the "British", rather they are asking about changing the name to something more representative of the Indigenous Peoples of BC who have been keepers of the land since time immemorial.

Not sure how that would work, though, as there are so many Nations and languages in the province.

Like, "Powell River School District" is now "qathet School District". They didn't just drop "Powell" to call it "River", lol.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Sorry, I suppose my humor doesn’t always transfer via text.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There is nothing offensive about the name British Columbia. This isn't like Yong-Dundas or schools that are named after residential school pushers or streets named after slavers.

There is a push to native-wash everything in Canada, I think because it makes progressives feel like they've accomplished something despite the systems of oppression against native peoples remaining fundamentally unchanged.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Though indirectly, it's named after Columbus... as in Christopher Columbus

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Not really, it is named after the Columbia River, named after the ship that found the mouth, the Columbia Rediviva.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Columbia, from Columbus, has always been a common poetic name for the US and it's this that the ship is named after. The name of BC is one of many on the continent that ultimately derives from Columbus

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Sure if you stretch it. But BC wasn't named aftet Columbus "discovering" it. Changing the name to remove a a non-connection is just putting glitter on shit

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I vote for just calling it BC without any hint of this being an abbreviation. If anyone asks say it stands for BeCause.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Beautiful Beesee

[+] [email protected] -24 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Next year something else will become offensive. Next year another huge initiative to change something else. This type of thing is literally endless as everything is changing all the time. Sounds like a waste of tax $ to me.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This type of thing is literally endless as everything is changing all the time.

Reality is tough to deal with, that's true.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

change bad

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Is your position that we shouldn't change because.... everything is changing all the time?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

My position is this seems like a waste of $ compared to more pressing matters like, I dunno, funding climate change initiatives.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

offensive. Next year another huge initiative to change something else. This type of thing is literally endless as everything is changing all the time. Sounds like a waste of tax $ to me.

Changing a name isn't stupid, unless done for stupid reasons. If you have the money - get it done. It also doesn't have to be done all at once. Start small with new document templates, create a reasonable budget for replacing signs...

Speaking as someone that resides in what was once the Province of Canada (Upper Canada or Canada West) and renamed themselves something else native - we named ourselves after the Huron word for 'Great Lake' and that ignores the fact that we're only talking one of the 4 great lakes that border us on one side of the province... There's way more to the province than the Hurons and way more than just that one lake. Seriously, get a huge list of place names that are underutilized by all the different nations out there, find something that is easier to spell than Saskatchewan, and send it around for approval.

The ONLY downside is that you're throwing out a lot of 'brand recognition.' I made the argument that the Law Society of Ontario should not have renamed themselves from the Law Society of Upper Canada because they have been called the LSUC for over 200 years. It's like if The Bay decided to go close all their stores under that banner and exclusively work under the name Saks Fifth Avenue - I don't think it would work out well for them, and it might not work well for BC.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

How much money is being currently "wasted" on this? And how much of it is taxpayer funding that could be redirected?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No idea, but knowing how the government works I'm sure it's more than I'd expect.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

If you're sure it's more than you'd expect, then you have some idea. You can just say how much you expect and then we have a lower bound to verify.

In any case do we even know who commissioned the poll? Might as well have been some institution with discretionary spending. Maybe I missed it in the article but it's not clear that this is government funded research in the first place.