By Stephen Vance, Editor
Councillor Lynda Stephens announced a notice of motion at the February 18 meeting of council. Stephens suggested that Meaford should consider changing its name to Georgian Highlands, and she would like to see the question of whether to rename the municipality on the ballot for the October 27 municipal election.
The motion should be on the agenda for the March 24 meeting of council.
Whether Meaford should be called Meaford, and whether the name should be changed to Georgian Highlands are two very different questions, with two very different answers.
Should this municipality be called Meaford? No, it probably shouldn’t.
At the time of the amalgamation of the former town of Meaford and the former townships of St. Vincent and Sydenham, a new name should most certainly have been chosen for the newly formed municipality.
That did happen, but like so much to do with this amalgamation along with many others across the province, the change of name was handled poorly, and that has seemingly helped to set the tone in this municipality over the last 13 years.
The transition team that worked to prepare for the new municipality recognized that with the merger of three distinct communities, the new municipality should carry a new moniker.
Many names were considered including Highland Hills, Big Head Valley, Georgian Shores, Cape Rich, Queen’s Bush, and Highland Hills. The transition team however decided on Georgian Highlands.
Not a bad name, however with the new municipality being in close proximity to the municipalities of Georgian Bluffs and Grey Highlands, it was soon obvious that the chosen name would likely result in confusion, so just a few months in to the first term of council for the new municipality, on March 5, of 2001, a bylaw was passed changing the name to the Municipality of Meaford.
Lovely name, but a big mistake.
The move made it appear that the Meaford section of the new municipality was the power centre, the big boss to the quaint rural communities with which the old town of Meaford had found itself married to.
Not a great start.
So here we are today, after 13 often tumultuous years that have seen lawsuits, deficits, huge tax increases, anger in the rural areas, anger in the urban area, crumbling infrastructure, and a host of other problems or perceived problems, and along comes a member of council suggesting that perhaps now is the time to change the name of the municipality back to Georgian Highlands to help mend the urban-rural relationship.
Even if Georgian Highlands was a suitable name – which it is not – with the clear message from Meaford ratepayers over the last several years that costs must be kept under control, taxes have gotten out of hand, and residents – many of whom are retired folks on fixed incomes – are feeling the pinch, so how in the world would an experienced member of council be suggesting a potential name change for the municipality, which would almost certainly be an incredibly expensive, frustrating and confusion-inducing undertaking?
You can’t repair a broken down Ford by renaming it Maserati, just as we aren’t going to fix the relationship between the various parts of our municipality by changing the name at this stage.
Bandage solutions are great for small cuts and scrapes, but they do little for a gushing open wound.
If the rural-urban divide is ever to be solved, it must start with respect, not a name change.
Councillor Stephens is right. Meaford should not be called Meaford. She’s also right that our rural residents are angry, frustrated, and they are so fed up that they have even considered the potential for a separation.
After 13 years however, a change of name – which should have been done properly 13 years ago – would cost a fortune in signage replacement, legal fees, letterhead, business cards, vehicle decals, bank accounts, and more. Not to mention all of the local service clubs and sports teams that might feel the need to change their names in order to drop Meaford from their organization name.
And think of all of the various address updates that all of our residents and businesses would have to undertake in order for their information with banks, utilities, schools, magazine subscriptions and a host of other accounts and items that carry our addresses to be changed.
To suggest that Meaford is inappropriately named is understandable, and it is most likely true, but the time to have changed the name has long passed, and if the desire is to bring the rural and urban sections of our municipality together and to end the years of angst that this amalgamation has brought with it, council could start by extending an olive branch, and in a spirit of mutual respect, and a willingness to listen, and a commitment to solving actual problems, we might be amazed at how much progress could be made.
