A creek by any other name would smell as sour.
With apologies to the Bard, Stink Creek Park will remain as is, despite a move to rename the downtown Port Hardy landmark.
The challenge to the name came in the form of an email from Dale Dorward — husband of Coun. Janet Dorward — to Port Hardy council when he asked the name of the park be changed to Edith Cadwallader Memorial Park.
Several councillors argued against the name change — Coun. Dorward left the meeting at that point because of a possible conflict of interest issue — and, in the end, council agreed to leave it as Stink Creek Park
“There’s a history here and we’ve actually asked our Historical Society if they can dig it all up for us because all have bits and pieces,” said Mayor Bev Parnham, outside chambers.
“When the downtown was being built around the park, there was a move then to change the name to something a little easier on the ears, perhaps, but there was a bit of an uproar from the people who lived here always, the people who were born and raised in this community, one of them being Buster Cadwallader,” she said.
“I remember having a discussion with him about it and he said it was named that for a reason, it’s about the skunk cabbages — it’s just full of them in the spring and he said it stinks, thus the name.
” Parnham said she doesn’t have a problem with the name, but acknowledged there are people who would like to see it changed.
“As council, we have to look at those suggestions and what we have asked for is a bit of a history of the park and if people understand a little bit more about that they may be a little more welcoming or take a little more pride in the name,” she said, unable to stifle a chuckle.