Hot Dogs & Hot Takes on History: So, We’re Changing Names Now?

Debunk myths. Debate opinions. Eat hot dogs. What happens when a name no longer fits the story a community wants to tell? This May, Dr. Joe Anderson explores the growing movement to rename places, landmarks, and institutions, asking us to consider if renaming a place is rewriting history or telling more of it. Names feel permanent — until they don’t. What happens when a community — an organization, a government, or anyone else — decides a name no longer fits the story it wants to tell? This month at Hot Dogs & Hot Takes on History, Dr. Joe Anderson explores the growing movement to rename places, landmarks, and institutions as part of a broader reckoning with how we commemorate history. Through case studies from across Canada and the United States, Dr. Anderson examines why communities are revisiting long-standing names — particularly those tied to colonialism, exclusion, or figures whose legacies have become increasingly contested. Is renaming a meaningful act of change, or just symbolic? Who gets to decide when a name has outlived its time? The conversation then turns close to home, with a look at the 2024 transition from Fort Calgary to The Confluence Historic Site & Parkland and what that shift reveals about how Calgary is rethinking its own past. Come for the hot dogs and reflect on the question: when we rename a place, are we rewriting history, or are we telling more of it?