The name of Vancouver's Stanley Park will not change despite a native chief's suggestion last week, federal government spokesmen said Monday.
"Our government does not support efforts to change the name of Stanley Park," Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore announced on his website. "A name change will not happen."
On Wednesday, Squamish Nation Chief Ian Campbell suggested the name of the widely-known downtown Vancouver park revert to the original name of a First Nations village that had been located there.
Campbell said the name should be changed to XwayXway, which he said was pronounced kwhy-kway.
But the public does not support a name change, B.C. MP and Treasury Board President Stockwell Day told a news conference at the park Monday.
"Eight million people from around the world and Vancouver every year visit this park and know it as Stanley Park," said Day. "And most Vancouverites like it that way."
Other provincial and municipal politicians asked about the name change after it was first suggested Wednesday, including B.C. Tourism Minister Kevin Krueger and Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson, greeted the idea positively and said it should be discussed.
Campbell said later in the week that he did not mean for the name of the park to be changed from Stanley Park, but that the name XwayXway be added as a secondary name.
The 404-hectare park was named in 1888 after Canada's Governor General at the time, Lord Stanley.