Schumacher Coun. Joe Campbell wrote this letter to city staff and council members regarding the request to rename Fourth Avenue in Schumacher as Mahovlich Way. The letter reads:
I have had five other contacts today with Fourth Avenue residents, one who runs a business, and all are opposed to renaming the street.
At the meeting of council on Feb. 9, I talked about a tourism hub in Schumacher to supplement the current attractions already in the area, the McIntyre Arena, the J. P. Bickell Sports Hall of Fame, the Miner's Memorial and the McIntyre headframe which is our most recognizable landmark to people from all over.
This would give Timmins a year-round tourism attraction to bring people to Timmins to stay and spend tourism dollars.
Also, at that time, I spoke of a Walk of Fame starting at the Lions Park and going to an area near the headframe.
This would be the perfect location for honouring Mr. Mahovlich and many other Timmins' residents that have gone on to great fame in their respective careers.
Former Governor of the Bank of Canada, Gordon Thiessen, was born and raised in South Porcupine,
World renown architect Frank Gehry spent 10 years of his life in Timmins prior to the family moving to Toronto. He has designed so-many world-renowned buildings that they are too numerous to mention. Two of them are the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA.
In addition, former Schumacher resident Jim Prentice, prior to his untimely death, went on to become the Premier of Alberta after serving in the House of Commons where he held several ministries including Environment, Energy and Indigenous Affairs.
These are just three that come to mind.
Many other former residents have gone on to distinguished careers in many pursuits. One that comes to mind is Doug McGrath who had a long acting career in movies. There are more.
In sports, we all know the history of the number of residents that went on to great careers in the National Hockey League. But we also had people like Michelle Belanger that went on to play basketball for the Canadian Women's team and then coach the University of Toronto women's basketball team for 40 years.
The late Fred Salvador, as did others, played in the Canadian Football League. Kathy Kriener won an Olympic gold and sister Laurie won several world cup medals in skiing.
Jason Gervais completed in the2000 Sydney Olympics as a shot putter.
This is just a shortlist. There are many more
Regards,
Joe
