Over the years, we have often marked the end of the summer season with a Blue Rodeo concert at the RBC Amphitheatre in Toronto. The evening is always a summer highlight for us. This year’s concert created a special memory though, something that brought encouragement, reinforced personal resolve and created a feeling of solidarity amongst my fellow citizens and concert-goers, amidst these fractured economic and political times. Set against the backdrop of Lake Ontario, and with perspectives shaped by the news out of the United States of the “renaming” of the lake, Blue Rodeo performed their “Hasn’t Hit Me Yet” song towards the end of the evening. With the audience singing along, the song reached a crescendo when the audience, in one loud, clear, defiant voice, belted out “in the middle of Lake Ontario!” It was a spontaneous, clear and proudly Canadian moment. The name is, and will always be, for us, Lake Ontario. That moment led me to reflect on the history of the name – something that people who have lived along its shores have known and recorded for hundreds of years.
