Rename Stanley Park fountain after Dr. Bonnie Henry: petition

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — An online petition aims to restore and rename the water fountain in Stanley Park after Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

More than 700 people had signed the petition, on GoPetition.com, as of Wednesday to rename the Golden Jubilee Fountain to “Dr. Bonnie Henry Fountain.”

“Dr. Bonnie Henry has helped guide and protect our communities with one of the best COVID-19 response strategies in the world. We are deeply grateful for her care, wisdom, level-headed decisiveness – and her earnest counsel to ‘Be kind, be calm and be safe,'” reads the petition.

“When this crisis is finally over, let’s thank her with a commemorative gesture that not only expresses our deep gratitude, but is also a permanent reminder to British Columbians that life is as fragile as it is beautiful.”

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The Golden Jubilee Fountain is a large lighted fountain in the middle of Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park. It was built in 1936 and last restored in 1986, according to the Vancouver Park Board.

“The sublimely beautiful Jubilee Fountain in Stanley Park’s Lost Lagoon has long been a symbol of human ingenuity and natural beauty working together. We think that restoring and renaming it the Dr. Bonnie Henry Fountain would be a worthy and inspired way to help convey our thankfulness to ‘Dr. Bonnie’ for all her tireless and brilliant efforts to keep us safe,” says the petition.

“The team at Vancouver Parks Board does a spectacular job of keeping our parks and green spaces among the most stunning and well-maintained in the country. With this petition, we’d like to humbly ask the great Parks Board team for their support and advocacy in making the Dr. Bonnie Henry Fountain a reality.”

Henry has been the subject of several tributes during the pandemic, including a mural exhibit in Gastown featuring a likeness of her.  A local jeweller also designed a bee pendant in tribute of Dr. Bonnie Henry as part of a fundraiser, while Fluevog designed a shoe and named it after her.

The shoe sold out within a day.