The town of Boston Bar in December, 2007.John Lehmann/ The Globe and Mail
It looks like Boston Pizza isn't the only one to undergo a quick renaming in a show of support for the Vancouver Canucks.
Boston Bar, a town of about 800 in the Fraser Canyon between Yale and Lytton, will become Vancouver Bar for the duration of the Stanley Cup finals.
Lloyd Forman, director of the regional district in Boston Bar, has ordered eight-foot signs that say, "For the month of June, 2011, this town is Vancouver Bar." The sign will be placed over a similarly sized one at the entrance to the town which currently says, "Welcome to Boston Bar."
"And of course I'm hoping that after this we can take it down, and next year we can put them up again, but we can put a black line through 2011 and put 2012 instead," Mr. Forman said.
According to Joan Blakeborough, who archives artifacts and books in a local history museum, the town was named after Boston men who came to pan gold in one of the sandbars in the Fraser River during the 1850s.
Mr. Forman said he believes the name change is a "good Canadian thing to do." Many of the residents are loyal Canucks fans who sport team flags on their cars. On game nights, they throw on their jerseys and crowd into the town's bowling centre and the two or three pubs to catch the game on a big screen.
"I think it's a pretty cool idea, why not?" said Tim Hortons employee Karrie Wilkins, about the town's name change. "It's our hockey team, so whether you're a fan or not, it's just a way to show your support."