Keep the Indigenous names. Make them readable.

British Columbia has honoured Indigenous names for as long as it has had maps. Tsawwassen. Coquitlam. Squamish. Nanaimo. Chilliwack. Kamloops. All of them anglicized renderings of Indigenous names, adopted so that everyone could say them, spell them, and find them.^⁠[1]

The province's naming policy said exactly that for decades: names "should be adopted in a single language form," "in Roman orthography using the standard letters and diacritics available," in a form "acceptable to both the language community concerned and the Geographical Names Office."^⁠[1] Respectful and readable at the same time.

What actually changed

The Riverview lands are now səmiq̓ʷəʔelə.^⁠[2] Roderick Haig-Brown Park became Tsútswecw in 2018,^⁠[3] and Maquinna became Nism̓aakqin by statute in 2025, with the English names deleted outright.^⁠[4]

Municipal governments run ahead under the same banner. Vancouver renamed the Art Gallery plaza šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl'e7énḵ Square in 2018 and retired the English designation entirely.^⁠[5] The name honours something real, and almost no one standing in that square can read it, say it, or search for it.

Then there is šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmasəm Street, formerly Trutch. The legal name is in Musqueam orthography, so the city keeps an official English translation ("Musqueamview") for emergency dispatch, secondary signs, and the mail,^⁠[6] and Canada Post concedes most non-English lettering "is not currently recognized" in its systems.^⁠[7] A name that needs a workaround to function has failed at its one job.

The city's own page is candid about the rest. hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ has "no fluent speakers left." Residents must give ICBC the English name, use it on any one-line address because Canada Post's systems cannot yet handle the characters, and download a special font just to display their own street address.^⁠[8]

The practical objections are not bigotry. A sign that is indecipherable at 40 km/h, unreadable to a newcomer still learning English, and untypeable on a standard keyboard cannot do what a sign is for, which is telling you where you are.^⁠[7]

Provincial policy points at more of this. The Declaration Act Action Plan commits ministries to fonts that carry Indigenous orthography into "communication, signage, services and official records."^⁠[9] That is a plan to put more of these names on public signs, not fewer.

No mandate, and a better model

Research Co. polled the province in July 2026. Renaming British Columbia: 58% opposed. Changing the flag: 52% opposed. Even the 2010 Haida Gwaii rename, in plain letters, wins only 51% support.^⁠[10]

The better model already exists. Daajing Giids, the Haida name restored to the former Queen Charlotte, uses standard letters that anyone can read, pronounce with a little effort, and type.^⁠[11] It honours the name without asking every driver to decode it.

Keep government signs, maps, and records in the standard alphabet every British Columbian can read, as the province did for decades. Anyone who wants to learn the traditional spelling is free to, and that is a personal choice and a kind gesture. It does not belong on a street sign, which has one job: telling you where you are.