The City of Toronto's vote to strip Yonge-Dundas Square of its current name has faced stiff local resistance from the get-go, and a campaign to halt the renaming of the large public space is gaining momentum — while inspiring some creative alternatives for the City's chosen replacement name of Sankofa Square.

Toronto City Council voted in favour of renaming the bustling square in December, spurring a change.org petition from a group seeking to stop the plan in its tracks.

Created on the day of the council vote in favour of renaming the public square and adjacent station, the petition has since garnered over 25,000 signatures from netizens united against the polarizing plan.

Dundas Street, the public square, Jane/Dundas Public Library, and two TTC subway stations currently bear the name of controversial historical figure Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville — whose actions during Britain's abolition of the slave trade are argued to have prolonged slavery and the suffering of captive people.

In what has become a politically-charged debate, voices on the left stress Dundas's direct contributions to slowing the halt of slave trading in the late 18th century. In contrast, conservative commentators have argued that Dundas was, himself, an abolitionist and that the replacement name of Sankofa Square also has connections to the slave trade.

Yonge-Dundas to be renamed Sankofa Square and people have questions🤔 https://t.co/fIN9WGQbLC #YongeDundasSquare #SankofaSquare #Toronto

— blogTO (@blogTO) December 15, 2023

So, like just about everything in modern society, the left and the right are at odds, and neither side is pleased with the other's solution.

In a January 2024 update, Daniel Tate of The Flyer Vault, one of the creators behind the petition, set out to find a name that people can get behind without the current politicization.

In place of either name, Tate asked in an Instagram post, "which Toronto hero deserves to be considered for the renaming of YDS square," suggesting people select from "so many amazing legends of our city — sports, music, politics, culture — who deserved the chance to be celebrated in what COULD have been a fun and unifying civic exercise."

While the creators' main argument centres over the lack of public participation and transparency in the renaming, it does speak in favour of the current name, saying that "civic streets, parks, and squares have a longstanding tradition of being named after people who built and moved the city forward — blemishes and all."

Tate argues that, regardless of the proposed name's origin, Mayor Chow and local councillor Chris Moise "deprived the city of broad input into the renaming of Yonge-Dundas Square," and called on commenters to participate in "a little thought experiment" to suggest names that all sides can agree on.

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Tate tells blogTO that he understands that the public needs a solution people can unite behind. He explains he's been "conducting a thought experiment about what more appropriate names would be such as Jackie Shane Square or Gordon Lightfoot Square," as well as a possible nod to a Raptors legend in "Kyle Lowry Square."

Comments on the Instagram post include write-in suggestions for renaming, including Jack Layton Plaza and Kardinal Offishall Square.

Meanwhile, the City's plan to rename the space is expected to advance in the coming months when the Yonge-Dundas Square Board reports to City Council on details related to the adoption of the new name, expected before the end of the second quarter of 2024.