No need to change name of B.C.
The recent letter by Ben Pires of Victoria, suggesting that British Columbia should be renamed and that our flag and coat of arms should be redesigned, is both ridiculous and unnecessary. In the first place it ignores the reality of our province and its place in confederation. Since 1871, when B.C. entered the new nation of Canada it has been recognized as British Columbia and known by that name.
The idea that it needs to have a name change has little, if anything to do with the reality of our time. It does, however, play along with the fashionable mania that is currently sweeping North America to deconstruct existing history and engage in needless and endless historical revisionism to appease special interest groups. What does this really mean? It means that the pogrom against those of traditional heritage continues.
Mr. Pires’s letter contains all the buzz words of the far left: “colonialism”, “British Moniker”, “tokenism”, “colonial pretension”, “diverse bio-geoclimatic zones” and so on. All the catch phrases of extremist liberal progressivism are there, but none of the realities of life in British Columbia. No one “conveniently” forgets anything, as Mr. Pires suggests. We are aware of all the elements that went into making B.C. We have been beaten over the head with political correctness for decades now, and don’t need anyone regurgitating it anymore.
Should indigenous peoples make the decision as to what the renaming of the province should be? (Again, unnecessary and unrealistic.) Why should they be given the sole voice in this matter?
Mr. Pires is part of the same unhistoric movement that wants to rename every city, town and location in Canada and the United States and tear down every statue. Ironically, he invokes the anniversary of B.C.’s entry into Canadian confederation to justify his one sided exposition, a curious choice since, by his logic, Confederation should be an odious idea.
We don’t need a name change for British Columbia, and we certainly don’t need to bow down to “woke culture” and its ideology just to appease those who gain a dubious sense of moral superiority by suggesting that we tear down or change anything they might be offended by. It’s British Columbia. That’s our province’s name. It should stay that way.
Perry Foster
Duncan