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Calgary, for example, a smaller city, had a corvette named after it the previous year.

The mayor sent a letter to the naval service expressing his surprise and indignation, then suggested the name “City of Edmonton,” which the navy rejected as too long.

He then invited the public to send him their suggestions. They responded with names such as Strathcona, City of Edmonton, Oliver, Grad, Sunny Alberta, Northern Gateway, Bloodhound and “Notnomde” (Edmonton spelled backward).

The commissioners recommended the name “Fort Edmonton,” which council approved and passed along to the navy.

The navy rejected that name too, explaining the prefix “Fort” was reserved exclusively for ships built under the Wartime Merchant Shipping program.

By Oct. 28, council was so fed up it discussed dropping the whole matter until Ald. Harry Ainley recommended the ship be called “Stettler,” in recognition of that town’s contributions to the Victory Loan Campaign and the sacrifice of its “brave sons” at Dieppe. The mayor of Stettler loved the idea.





HMCS Stettler was launched a year later.

As Fry wrote in a letter to Edmonton MP James MacKinnon, Edmonton had “always regretted that no ship could have been named after our own city, but council felt that any other name than Edmonton would have no local significance and could not be a source of any special pride in our city.”

The issue resurfaced in March 1944, when the city commissioner wrote the naval service wondering if a boat could be named “Edmontonia.” The naval service wrote back reminding council it had decided on the name “Stettler” and that there were no unnamed boats being built.

Over time, navy ships were named after other Alberta cities: Camrose, Vegreville, Wetaskiwin, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Drumheller, Medicine Hat and Blairmore.

It took 55 years, but a Canadian Forces ship was finally named HMCS Edmonton in 1997.