If the reaction to the square renaming is any indication, Toronto is growing weary of pointless debates over whether the names of long-dead figures should be expunged from the city’s landscape
Late last year, with little notice or public debate, Toronto City Council voted 19-2 to rename Yonge-Dundas Square , the busy gathering place opposite the Eaton Centre in the heart of downtown. The purpose was to erase the name of Henry Dundas, the prominent Scottish statesman, who stood accused of delaying the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
“This is a good day,” said the local councillor, Chris Moise, who has pushed for the change on the grounds it will help the city’s Black community feel acknowledged. It is not a good day for Toronto’s finances, either. Soon after Ms. Chow took office last summer, she said Toronto was “broke.” She was not far wrong. Even after raising taxes 9.5 per cent, the biggest increase in a quarter century, the city is struggling to pay for all its needs, from more housing to better transit.
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