Name that park

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/01/2012 (5044 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

So, we need a name for the park at First and Rosser?

A petition has been circulated to name it after former landowner David S. Weiss. City council is to debate naming it after longtime councillor Erroll Black. And the vaguely perjorative name "Battery Park" has been kicked around for a couple of years, too.

Possible names for the park was the subject of Monday’s poll, but when the Brandon Sun posted the story on Facebook and Twitter, we asked for other suggestions. Here’s a collated list (many came from history blogger Christian Cassidy):

• David S. Weiss Memorial Park — named after a longtime landowner in the area, who ran Brandon Scrap Iron and Metals Recycling (Skunk and Junk). Weiss also served as a Brandon alderman, but was partly responsible for the land’s contamination.
• Errol Black Park — named after the venerable former East End city councillor.
• Battery Park — a tongue-in-cheek response to the longtime practice of breaking car batteries at that site, but also perhaps a tie-in to the suggestion below.
• Cannon Park, Memorial Park, Veterans Park or Shilo Park — complete with a military piece, perhaps a howitzer, some citizens have suggested that it’s past due for Brandon to honour its military ties.
• Joe Hall Park — The park features a huge hill, perhaps Hall’s Hill? This early-20th century hockey legend grew up in Brandon but died of influenza while playing for the Montreal Canadiens in the (cancelled) 1918-19 Stanley Cup finals.
• James Ehnes — perhaps Brandon’s most currently famed musical export.
• Rhoda Power Tenant — Brandon’s first female city councillor (they called them aldermen back then)
• Fred McGuinness — A longtime newspaperman and then memoirist, McGuinness has a lengthy list of accomplishments.

Other suggestions already have something named after them:

• Rosser Park — not only is that where the park is located, it would be named after Brandon’s founder, Thomas Lafayette Rosser. But, he does already have a street named after him.
• Dr. Alexander Fleming, a chair of the shool board and Brandon’s first doctor, has a school named in his honour.
• Firefighter Fred Brown, the only Brandon firefighter to have been killed on duty, now has a street named after him as well.
• Dr. A.P. McDiarmid, the first president of Brandon College. He also has a street named after him, too.
• Harry Cater, a longtime politician in early Brandon, including several stints as mayor. He, too, already has a street named after him.
• Stanley McInnis, perhaps Brandon’s first dentist, but also a noted baritone and cartoonist who was elected three times as MLA. Oh, and all this before he turned 40? Stanley Park is already named for him, however.

So there you have it. Any other suggestions?