Hamilton's newest public high school will be named after a woman, which trustees say is a fitting nod to gender equality. But some union fans aren't big on the name.
The new high school southeast of the Lincoln Alexander Parkway will be called Nora Frances Henderson Secondary School, after a female pioneer in municipal politics.
Henderson's name won out over Nelson Mandela, astronaut Chris Hadfield and former Hamilton educator E. A. Hutton during a Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board standing committee meeting Monday. Trustees voted 6-4 in favour of Henderson's name.
A special naming committee recommended Mandela, Hadfield and Henderson's names. Trustee Wes Hicks suggested Hutton.
But Henderson is a logical pick because she's not only local, but she was a role model for women, said Ancaster trustee Alex Johnstone. And it would help "diversify the names of some of our schools."
"We have so few women, even today, who make it to such high positions," she said. "We need to give all of our students equal role models to look up to, both male and female."
Lower-city trustee Tim Simmons was one of three who voted against using Henderson's name. As an elected official, she crossed picket lines, namely during the Stelco strike of 1946.
That's not a viewpoint he wants to encourage, he said.
In 1946 more than 2,000 employees went on strike over work week hours and wages. The company brought in replacement workers. The strike went on for several weeks and ended with Stelco's recognition of the United Steelworkers union.
Peter Graefe, a McMaster University political science professor, agrees with Simmons's take. Henderson is a less than ideal pick because of her actions during the Stelco strike. She led the charge to call in police to crush the effort, he said.
"The names we choose for public institutions transmit memory and values," he said. "I would have thought free association would count for more in Hamilton. But perhaps it is a value that gets forgotten in 2014, even if a fundamental freedom in the 1982 Charter."
Henderson, a former reporter, was the first woman to be elected to city council. She was the first woman in Canada to be elected to a Board of Control and former executive secretary of Ontario's Association of Children's Aid Societies.
Henderson is also the original namesake of the Juravinski Hospital.
The new high school replaces Hill Park, Barton and Mountain, which are scheduled to close. It will occupy 10.5 hectares (26 acres) in the Shermal Estates subdivision.
The board will also spend the next 60 days considering whether to close 10 elementary schools from Flamborough to central Mountain, and whether to close two more and build new schools in the same locations.
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