Winnipeg park could be renamed after Nobel-prize-winning astrophysicist

A Winnipeg park could soon be renamed to honour a Nobel Prize winner.

A Winnipeg park could soon be renamed to honour Nobel-prize-winning astrophysicist born in Manitoba.

A motion before Winnipeg city council is suggesting the renaming of Carriere Avenue Park to pay tribute to James Peebles.

The motion notes that Peebles, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2019, is an astrophysicist, astronomer and theoretical cosmologist who is also an Albert Einstein Professor of Science, emeritus, at Princeton University.

It adds that Peebles grew up in St. Boniface and is a graduate of St. Vital’s Glenlawn Collegiate, which is why it’s fitting to pay tribute to him at a park at the boundary of St. Boniface and St. Vital.

“We were going to do a street; now we’re doing a park,” said Brian Mayes, city councillor for St. Vital.

“Couldn’t get a better location for it, because it’s a mix of St. Boniface and St. Vital… This is a great guy, so we’re very excited and hopefully we get the votes to name the park.”

The motion also asks that the Welcoming Winnipeg Policy—an initiative designed to ensure Indigenous perspectives are represented in historical markers and place names—be waived.

It notes that Peebles just turned 90 and that council recently voted to waive the Welcoming Winnipeg criteria for a park naming in Transcona due to the advanced age of the retired police officer for whom it was named.

The motion will go before city council on Sept. 25.