IOMMS

Andrew Cardozo is a member of some organization that is making a proposal to the National Capital Commission to change the names of major streets in downtown Ottawa. The idea is to make Ottawa seem more like a national capital by changing Wellington, Bank and Bronson to names like Confederation, Prince Edward Island and Maple Leaf. He wrote an article about it in the Hill-Times this week.

I have two suggestions to all change-happy municipal politicians:

1. Do NOT change the names of streets. Ever. Period. Once you've chosen a name, consider yourself stuck with it. Memorize this mnemonic: IOMMS (It's On My Map, Stupid).
2. When naming a street after someone, use the person's last name only.

I had to throw in the second, unrelated rule, because here in Waterloo we have recently been saddled with street names like "Father David Bauer Drive" and "Wes Graham Way", which befuddle the post office as well as the populace.

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