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In 1834, when the Legislative Council of Upper Canada decided that the capital needed to be formally incorporated as a city, the citizenry remembered that they belonged to “Toronto” and appealed to the council to have the more musical old name restored. Over four decades their annoyance had not receded. Diehards who wanted York to remain York for imperial-grandeur reasons were outvoted, and Toronto’s formal Act of Incorporation observes that “it is desirable, for avoiding inconvenience and confusion, to designate the Capital of the Province by a name which will better distinguish it.” The appellation “Toronto,” of course, had actually been nicked from a spot some way off, but the white settlers had mislaid that information, and didn’t check with anyone who would know better.

Photo by Postmedia News

It goes without saying that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I wonder how sure we can be that Toronto’s rebellion against Yorkishness was without importance. Toronto has, within my lifetime, become the supreme conurbation of the Dominion, with no remaining rival. Its dominance of Canadian culture and media, and its control of the commanding heights of finance and trade, have done nothing but grow.

Meanwhile, one notices — or fails to notice — that poor London, Ontario, stuck loyally by its own Simcoe-given name. It also suffers from near-total political and cultural neglect by the rest of Confederation, and even by its own province. Is this a coincidence? You cannot even mention “London, Ontario” outside southeast Ontario without having to specify that it is (at best!) the second London — the bogus London, the imitation. Is it yet too late for “Londoners” to retrieve a dignified, distinctive, Indigenous name for the place in which they dwell? Or, if necessary, do as Toronto did, and borrow one from nearby?

• Email: ccosh@postmedia.com | Twitter: colbycosh