Idea to rename Calgary airport after Harper can't get off the ground: poll
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The notion of renaming Calgary International Airport after outgoing prime minister Stephen Harper doesn’t seem to fly with city residents — at least for now, according to a new poll.
Following the defeat of Harper’s Conservative government in the Oct. 19 federal election, at least two online petition campaigns have been launched calling for the airport to be named after the Calgary Heritage MP, the longest-serving prime minister from Western Canada.
However, a Mainstreet-Postmedia poll found only 19 per cent of Calgarians supported renaming the airport immediately.
Supporters of Harper — who will be replaced as prime minister when Justin Trudeau and his Liberal cabinet are sworn in on Wednesday — got some good news from the survey, however.
The poll showed that while 18 per cent of respondents are opposed to renaming the airport, 45 per cent said they would consider renaming it in the future, but not now.
“In the immediate term, people don’t want it, but it’s interesting the people who would consider it in time,” said Mainstreet president Quito Maggi.
“Perhaps my children will see the Stephen Harper Airport in Calgary.”
The petitions in favour of renaming the airport after Harper have prompted online petitions opposed to honouring him in that way. Other petitions sprouted up calling for the city landfill to be renamed after the outgoing prime minister, or for Harper to change his own name to Calgary International Airport.
Other Canadian airports have been renamed after prime ministers — including Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, the Toronto Pearson International Airport and Saskatoon’s John G. Diefenbaker International Airport — but only after the leaders had died.
Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt said the idea of renaming the airport after Harper is defensible — in the future.
“It makes perfect sense,” he said.
“But you don’t start drumming that up in the aftermath of a major electoral defeat like that. Let’s wait a bit before we start introducing monuments to the great Stephen Harper.”
The automated phone survey of 1,073 randomly selected Calgary residents was conducted Sunday. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.99 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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