Don’t rename Union Station, city staff says

TORONTO – Union Station should not be re-named, city bureaucrats say.

City staff shot down a proposal by Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong to rename Union Station after Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. MacDonald in a report to be reviewed by the city’s executive committee next week.

The city could still honour MacDonald – the man the report claims to be “the dominant creative mind which produced” Canada – with a plaza and plaque directly outside of Union Station.

Union Station has its own historical significance, according to the city report and “remains an iconic building with significant heritage.”

The transit hub is one of the busiest in Canada and in 1975 was designated by Parks Canada as a National Historic Site which noted the building is “the country’s finest example of a classical beaux-arts-style railway station.”

The report has a good chance of being approved by executive committee, as Minnan-Wong told The Globe and Mail “the decision reflects a compromise in the tradition of Sir John A. Macdonald.”