WHEN THE Royal Canadian Geographical Society moved its headquarters from Wilbrod Street in Ottawa to McArthur Avenue in Vanier in 1988, some Society members wondered how far the Society had moved from the nation's capital. Most were surprised to learn it was only about half a kilometre to the east.
Located on the eastern bank of the Rideau River two kilometres from its mouth, Vanier was originally settled in the 1830s, when developer Charles Cummings built a bridge across the river. The growing community on Montreal Road was called Cummings Bridge for almost half a century. In the 1870s it was renamed Janeville, either in honour of the wife of another settler of the 1830s, Donald McArthur (hence McArthur Avenue), or for the first child born in the community.
The name Eastview was given on December 31, 1908, when the communities of Janeville, Clarkstown and Clandeboye -- in what was then Gloucester Township -- were incorporated into a single village with an area of 2.79 square kilometres. Eastview -- the name was chosen because there was a view of Ottawa's then eastern limits -- became a town in 1912 and a city in 1963. In 1950, Eastview applied to the Ontario Municipal Board to annex adjacent lands in Gloucester Township, but the board gave approval to Ottawa instead, leaving Eastview surrounded by Ottawa and setting the stage for Vanier's distinction as Canada's smallest city.
On January 1, 1969, Eastview was renamed Vanier, primarily to honour the first French Canadian to be appointed governor general, but also to give the city a name with francophone character. Fifty-five percent of its population of 18,150 is francophone, its street names are largely French, it is the headquarters of the Association canadienne-française de l'Ontario and other francophone groups, and its distinctly French-Canadian atmosphere is widely known throughout the national capital area.
Vanier's population has steadily declined over the past 30 years as residents left behind their small, quaint homes on narrow streets for larger houses and lots in the suburbs. Down from 24,700 in 1963, Vanier now has the smallest population of the five cities in the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton (the others are Gloucester, Kanata, Ottawa and Nepean).
More than once -- the latest being in the fall of 1992 -- provincially appointed commissions have urged amalgamation with Ottawa. Even in 1984, a majority of Vanier's voters recommended joining the capital city, though Vanier city council at the time declined to act. Ottawa provides Vanier with police service and fire protection but, worried about increased costs, has resisted annexing its small neighbour, whose median income is only 70 percent of Ottawa's. More recently, Vanier has displayed a renewed pride in itself, and now seems determined to go its own way.
Georges Philias Vanier was one of the most admired governors general to hold that office during Canada's first century. Born in Montreal in 1888, he studied law at Laval University before becoming a career soldier. He was one of the founding officers of the 22nd Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and lost a leg during a World War I battle in France. After the war, the battalion became the Royal 22nd Regiment (the illustrious Vandoos, an anglicization of vingt-deux), and Vanier served as its commanding officer from 1926 to 1928. He distinguished himself in Canadian diplomatic postings in London, Geneva and Paris, and recruited French Canadians to serve in World War II. In 1959, he was appointed governor general, the Queen's representative in Canada. In the third month of Canada's centennial celebrations, the man who had become renowned for his love of Canada, and for his deeply spiritual and moral dimensions, died at Rideau Hall.
Ontario's Vanier is not the only city in Canada named for the governor general. In 1966, the Quebec City suburb of Québec-Ouest, with an area of 4.68 square kilometres and a population of about 11,000, was renamed Vanier. When the legislation to change Eastview's name was being considered in Ontario in 1968, officials in Vanier, Que., argued that only one Canadian city should have the name, but the wishes of the Ontario city's residents prevailed.
In Quebec, four lakes, a township, a creek, a hill, and an electoral division are named for Vanier. Forty towns and cities in the province have a Vanier street, boulevard or avenue. Elsewhere in Canada, there are another 26 towns and cities with a street, avenue or drive named for the former governor general.
In the 1950s, what was thought to be a peninsula of Bathurst Island in the Arctic archipelago was found to be three large islands and two smaller ones. Initially, the names of three American vessels involved in establishing early-warning radar stations across the High Arctic were given by geographer Andrew Taylor to the large islands, but they were rejected in 1960 by the Canadian Board on Geographical Names. The board proposed naming the islands after Vanier and his two predecessors, Vincent Massey and Viscount Alexander of Tunis. In 1962, the federal cabinet approved the proposals and stated the choices would reaffirm Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic. The form Ile Vanier was adopted for the largest of the three islands at 970 square kilometres.
A year later, the small island between Ile Vanier and Massey Island was named Ile Pauline for the popular and gracious wife of the governor general. Vanier replied that his wife was pleased indeed that the "baby" island was next to his. Knowing that there was a larger unnamed island between Alexander and Massey islands, he quipped that after "42 years of marriage she still prefers my company."
As Robert Speaight noted in his book, Vanier: Soldier, Diplomat and Governor General (1970), Vanier also mused whimsically about the appointment of an island manager for Ile Vanier, the design of an island flag, and the publication of two newspapers, one in English and one in French.
In 1967, the Whitehorse Lions Club proposed naming a mountain overlooking the north end of Kusawa Lake, 55 kilometres west of Whitehorse, for the governor general. A four-member team climbed the mountain on July 9 and erected a cairn at its summit. Some badges from General Vanier's Royal 22nd uniform and some photos of the late governor general were embedded in the cairn by the regiment's Staff Sgt. Albert Bélanger. The Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographical Names endorsed the names three days after the climb. Mount Vanier has an elevation of 1,845 metres and is visible from the Alaska Highway, 20 kilometres to the north.
Also in 1967, a Royal Air Force expedition from Britain climbed a mountain near the north end of Ellesmere island and named it for Vanier. This second Mount Vanier in Canada's north, approved in 1971, has an elevation of 2,417 metres, just 200 metres lower than nearby Barbeau Peak, the highest mountain in the Canadian Arctic.
The name Vanier is recalled in many other ways in Canada. The Vanier Institute of the Family was established in 1964 by Georges and Pauline Vanier to promote research into the family and study the complexity of modem living and its effects on the integrity of family life. Since 1960, the institute of Public Administration of Canada has annually awarded the gold Vanier Medal to an individual showing outstanding leadership in Canadian public administration.
A community college in Saint-Laurent, Que., a western suburb of Montreal, is named Vanier College. Vanier Park in Vancouver is the site of the City of Vancouver Archives and the Centennial Museum and Planetarium. Nationwide, there are many elementary and secondary schools bearing his name. And each November since 1965, the best of Canada's university football teams compete for the Vanier Cup.
