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Stephen Harper Airport Would Be Fitting Honour For Former PM: Calgary Petitions

The Stephen J. Harper International Airport?

Three petitions are fighting over renaming the Calgary International Airport after outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The first petition was started by R. Curtis Mullen, who said the longest-serving prime minister from Western Canada should be honoured by renaming the terminal the Stephen J. Harper International Airport.

According to his Twitter account, Mullen is a transplanted Canadian who currently lives in Kansas.

Conservative columnist Ezra Levant liked the idea so much, he set up his own petition calling for the name change.

"Let's rename the Calgary International Airport, the Stephen Harper International Airport. It wouldn’t be Harper’s style — he’s not a show-off, he’s not about selfies, and an airport named after you is the ultimate selfie. But he deserves it," wrote Levant.

Harper, who has been a Calgary MP since the '90s, once called it "Canada's greatest city."

Both Mullen and Levant's efforts caught the eye of Alison Cowan, who started a counter-petition.

"Please, let's not make rewarding political criminals an Alberta tradition, okay? To name one of the busiest airports in Canada for someone known internationally, who is the only PM to have ever been found in contempt of parliament is a disgrace. Let's just not," Cowan writes.

If the Calgary Airport Authority does move to change the moniker in honour of Harper, it would become the fifth airport in Canada to be named after a former prime minister — joining Saskatoon's John G. Diefenbaker International Airport, Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport and Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.

Each airport was renamed in honour of the former PMs after they had died.

The Geographical Names Board of Canada suggests that a person should have contributed significantly to the area and be deceased for a minimum of five years before their name is used commemoratively.

Twitter users have been weighing in on the petitions under the hashtag #HarperAirport.

A few are in favour of the name change.

Others couldn't resist mocking an airport named after the former Conservative party leader.

There's also an alternative suggestion floating around.

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