Changing Place Names – What’s Old is News

By Sean Graham
Lauren Beck, author of Canada’s Place Names & How to Change Them, joins the show to talk about the debate over changing names. The discussion ranges from how Canada’s places got their names, colonial naming practices, and the cultural significance of place names. The conversation also touches on Indigenous naming customs, the politics of renaming, and the overall challenge of naming places after people.

Historical Headline of the Week

Cindy Tran, “Ottawa’s Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway to Get an Indigenous Name,” The Globe & Mail, January 19, 2023.

Sean Graham is a media historian, an Adjunct Professor at Carleton University, and a contributing editor with Activehistory.ca