After two weeks, 11,000 votes and six finalists, Halifax Transit’s new ferry has been named after a Canadian sailor.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Craig Blake was the first Canadian sailor to be killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan.
Blake, 37, a married father of two, was killed by an explosive device on May 3 2010.
He was a member of Task Force-1-10.
He was part of an elite navy group based at the Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic in Halifax that specializes in neutralizing bombs underwater and on land.
More than 500 names were submitted in the fall during the first phase of the ferry-naming contest. A selection committee narrowed those down to six finalists for voting consideration by residents.
Blake’s widow, Priscilla, said she’s excited and proud that his name will grace the new vessel.
“I felt proud of him when he was alive, but I still always of course feel so proud when something like this happens,” she said. “It’s so amazing that people are still remembering Craig because it’s almost been five years. It’s nice to know that his memory is still alive and he’s still in everyone’s thoughts.”
She said she was a bit surprised that her husband won, since he was up against some tough competition. The other shortlisted names included Vincent Coleman, a dispatcher who stopped passenger trains from entering the city just moments before the Halifax Explosion; former mayor and MLA Walter Fitzgerald; volunteer and Pier 21 Society founder Ruth Goldbloom; social activist Raymond Taavel and poet Maxine Tynes.
“There were so many great people on the list that it was pretty tough to choose, I think, for most people,” Priscilla said.
Count her son among those who faced a difficult decision. Priscilla said when she read the list of candidates to her 10-year-old son, Tie, he was keen on Coleman.
“I was telling Tie who he was and Tie goes, ‘Oh, actually, I might vote for him.’
“I’m pretty sure he voted for his dad, but he might have voted for Vincent Coleman. He really liked the heritage commercial, I guess,” she said, laughing.
Halifax Transit will submit the vessel name, Craig Blake, to Transport Canada for approval as the name of the newest harbour ferry.
The passenger ferry will replace one of the existing vessels and is set to go into service this summer.
A celebration of the new ferry will take place once the boat arrives.
The resident who submitted the winning name as part of the contest will receive a Halifax Transit MetroPass valid for one year of free travel on conventional buses and ferries.
This most recent ferry-naming contest follows one launched in late 2013, which resulted in the first ferry added to the fleet in over 20 years being named Christopher Stannix.
Stannix was a 24-year-old Cole Harbour soldier who was killed in Afghanistan in April 2007.
We were honoured to be in Simcoe this past Remembrance Day to be part of the unveiling of a new plaque in his honour on the Bell Tower there and to meet his mother and family members.
Files from the Herald News, and The Canadian Heroes Foundation.
