It’s possible that Canada doesn’t have enough problems. How else do you explain the fact that nearly 1,700 Vancouver natives have poured their activist instincts into giving a park a silly new name? On the other hand, their success rate is high: On Google Maps, Guelph Park is now officially called “Dude Chilling Park.”
According to the Change.org petition that drummed up so much civic engagement, the idea is to give this tiny green space more exposure:
By renaming this lovely rectangle of grass to “Dude Chilling Park”, people will give this little rectangle of nature the respect and attention it deserves. We all witnessed how much attention the park gained from just one day of social media posts on the internet. Imagine how much that attention can grow, given a little time and nurturing. Dude Chilling Park will become a destination, a place to meet with friends. Imagine a visitor from Toronto sharing his photo relaxing with the “chilling dude”, instead of just another boring picture of him riding the downtown bull statue.
But maybe the real point is to have this show up in the middle of your city’s map:
This is, as far as I’m concerned, also a perfectly reasonable activist goal.
