Why it's called Confederation Bridge — and why the push to rename it isn't surprising

Last week, the P.E.I. Legislature unanimously passed a motion urging the federal government to change the name of the Confederation Bridge to Epekwitk Crossing. 

But that name, and the debate surrounding it, are nothing new. In fact, it was the preferred choice of a panel headed by former Island premier Alex Campbell, who in 1996 picked it out of a shortlist of three names drawn from thousands of submissions from all across Canada.

"Span of Green Gables, Spud Highway, Abegweit, Confederation Bridge, the Fixed Link — there [were] many names for it," said Raymond Sewell, an English professor at St. Mary's University.

In 2014, Sewell submitted his master's thesis on the history of the bridge, its name and what it meant for Canadian and Island Identity.

Sewell, a Mi'kmaw man from the Pabineau First Nation in N.B., said he chose that subject because he's been always interested in how names and symbols shape how Indigenous people, Islanders and Canadians see themselves.

He said those concerns were prescient.

"Back then I had a hunch that in the future would be renamed," he said.

"When you name it after something like Confederation that was so damaging, of course people are going to want to change it. At some point, the zeitgeist, the feeling of the time, the spirit of time, is going to change. I don't think the spirit of the time is as colonial as it was."

Campbell's naming panel was tasked to select a name based on four criteria. It had to:

Three names ended up on the shortlist: Northumberland Strait Bridge, Confederation Bridge and Abegweit Crossing.

Abegweit is the anglicized spelling of Epekwitk, the name for P.E.I. in the Mi'kmaw language. It means "cradled on the waves."

"[My father described it] as a feather, or something floating on the waves," Sewell said. 

"I have no idea who Prince Edward is. But when I'm on the land and I look over there, I see Epekwitk, you know? It's so beautiful. It describes the geological features."

But the federal government was not bound by the panel's recommendation. On Sept. 27, 1996 Public Works Minister Diane Marleau announced the structure would be named Confederation Bridge, which a newspaper article at the time points out was the most common suggestion in all but two provinces.