[BRIEF NOTE] All the Billy Bishops

[rfmcdonald]

Billy Bishop is a military hero of Canada, a First World War military pilot responsible for more than seventy kills. He's a well-known figure: my grade 12 high school teacher named his class "Billy Bishop High" in the man's honour. Both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail have noted that the controversial Toronto City Centre Airport on the Toronto Islands will be renamed the "Billy Bishop Memorial Airport." The problem? As Globe and Mail's Josh Wingrove writes, Bishop's hometown of Owen Sound already has its own airport named after Bishop, the Billy Bishop Regional Airport.

The news came as a surprise 200 kilometres northwest of Toronto in Mr. Bishop's hometown of Owen Sound.

The small city is filled with tributes to the First World War pilot, including its own airport: the Billy Bishop
Regional Airport.

“You can't have two Billy Bishop airports,” Owen Sound airport manager Barry Lewin said, who hadn't heard of the TPA's plan.

“You'd think, out of courtesy, they would have notified or asked us? Because we certainly wouldn't be in favour.”

[. . .]

Beginning next month, the island airport's chief patron, Porter Airlines, is expanding its Toronto-Ottawa service and will make the round-trip journey up to 17 times a day.

Ottawa, meanwhile, is said to be looking favourably at a proposal to funnel millions of dollars in “stimulus funds” to construct a pedestrian tunnel connecting the airport to the lakeshore.

Two board members were unceremoniously let go this week, and questions continue to be raised over the spending of former TPA chief executive officer Lisa Raitt, who is now a cabinet minister.

“There are much more important issues [than the name],” said Brian Iler, leader of Community Air, a grassroots group that opposes the island airport.