‘It finally has its name’: Restaurateur floats idea to rename Yonge-Dundas Square after Gordon Lightfoot

People around the world continue to mourn the death of legendary Canadian musician Gordon Lightfoot, who died last Monday, and a Toronto restaurateur wants to rename one of the city’s best-known landmarks in his honour.

Arron Barberian, owner of Barberian’s Steakhouse, located near Yonge and Elm streets, has sent a letter to the mayor’s office asking if city council would consider renaming Yonge-Dundas Square after Lightfoot.

“No person performed more concerts within two blocks of Yonge-Dundas Square than Gordon Lightfoot,” Barberian told CP24.com.

“Nobody embodies this neighborhood like him.”

In the 1960s and 1970s Lightfoot performed countless times at the taverns that used to be in the Yonge and Dundas area, including more than 170 concerts at the iconic Massey Hall – more than any other performer by far.

Incidentally, Barberian played an integral role in creating the public space that is Yonge-Dundas Square in the 1990s.

He – alongside Bobby Sniderman, owner of The Senator Restaurant and son of Sam Sniderman, founder of the record shop chain Sam the Record Man – wanted to revitalize the neighbourhood and create a public space to hold concerts and events for the community.

“[We] conceived a redevelopment for the Yonge and Dundas area, and the centerpiece was this private-public partnership space at the corner of Yonge and Dundas where we could do music and events and everything,” Barberian said.

“It was my idea 30 years ago to build it and as we went forward with it, I ended up being the vice chair of the square because I was busy running my steakhouse, but also, I was the chair of the Downtown-Yonge BIA at the time. But all through that process, the name Yonge-Dundas Square was just a placeholder. We always knew there was a name coming.”

When former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau died, the idea was floated to rename the square after him, but he had no real connection to the area, Barberian said.

And after many years of waiting, Barberian says that naming the square after Lightfoot, who meant so much to the community around it, is the best way to honour his memory.

“I believe, and I think many will believe, that Yonge-Dundas [Square] finally has its name,” he said.

Barberian’s idea has largely been well received on social media, and Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie told CP24.com that she welcomes Barberian’s suggestion.

“I am hopeful that we can find an appropriate way to commemorate Gordon Lightfoot's life,” she said.

Toronto city council is set to consider two motions brought forward last week regarding Lightfoot at Wednesday’s council meeting.

One asks the city manager to report back to council by the end of the year on a plan for the creation of a statue honouring Lightfoot’s life. The other is to proclaim November 17 as Gordon Lightfoot Day in Toronto each year.

Lightfoot, though born in Orillia, Ont., spent much of his life living in Toronto. He cut his teeth as a performer in the coffee shops of Yorkville, once a folk music hotbed, and would later buy a home in the city’s Rosedale neighbourhood.

“He didn't leave. He chose Toronto. They wanted him to move to LA and other cities, but he chose to live in Toronto,” Barberian said.

“Many big Canadian musicians, they moved away. Some of them changed their citizenship – Gordie didn't do that. He moved to the city and then he made it his home, and his career was made here.”

Barberian says not only is naming Yonge-Dundas Square after Lightfoot the right thing to do, but it comes at a perfect time. The city already has a mandate to change the name of Dundas Street and all city assets that bear the Dundas name.

An online petition was created calling for the street to be renamed due to the controversial legacy of Henry Dundas, who was involved in opposing the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in the 18th century.

The renaming process remains ongoing, but a community advisory committee is scheduled to report back to council sometime this year with recommended new names.

Barberian says that renaming Yonge-Dundas Square after Lightfoot would be a move that could be celebrated by Canadians of all stripes, and across many generations.

“He told the story of Canada. He told stories of heartbreak and he told stories of the common man, of the working man. He was an incredible person,” he said.

“When I was a kid in the early 70s in the car with my father, [Gordon Lightfoot songs] were the songs that brought generations together. I was listening to the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin and things like that, and my father was more into opera and classics, but the Gordie Lightfoot songs were the songs we could sing together.”