Quote:
Originally Posted by New Brisavoine
At the time, to be honest, there was a little controversy, as some said the new merged municipality should have been called "Hull", based on the fact it was the central, historical area of the municipality, and not "Gatineau" (which became the new name based on the fact it was the most populated municipality if I remember correctly?). The effect of the rule (new merged municipalities should have the name of the most populated of the former municipalities) quite pleased the PQ in the case of Gatineau, you have to admit (the Liberals of Québec at the time even promised they would reverse it if they returned to power, but they didn't in the end).
That being said, I think "Gatineau" is now universally accepted in Québec, and "Hull" has less and less recognition (especially from outside of Québec). Also, if the PQ really had had a plan to erase all English names, they would surely have changed the name of Sherbrooke, which they never did and never showed an inclination to do.
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Yes, the old Ville de Gatineau had about 40,000 more people than the old Ville de Hull. Pretty sure more people favoured the Gatineau name here. Hull's population was also mostly francophone, and while I knew some Hullois who were attached to the Hull name, many were also OK with the change to a more francophone name. Whereas I assume few people in the more populous (old) Gatineau would have wanted the name Hull.
Also note that the new city of Gatineau also included municipalities named Buckingham (roughly pronounced bâquigne-yamm by locals) and Masson-Angers.