Sharon, Lois and Bram to get a Davisville playground named after them

Could any law that prevents Sharon, Lois and Bram from getting their due possibly be a good law? Incredibly enough, this is a question city councillors recently had to answer.

The crux of the issue was a playground in June Rowlands Park, near the intersection of Davisville Avenue and Mount Pleasant Road. Children’s entertainers Sharon Hampson, Lois Lillenstein and Bram Morrison all live in the area. Over the summer, councillor Josh Matlow floated the idea of naming the playground for the trio, whose The Elephant Show helped raise a generation of TV-watching youngsters during both its original run on CBC and its days in syndication on Nickelodeon.

Despite the manifest appropriateness of commemorating Sharon, Lois and Bram’s contribution to world culture (Ted Rogers has a statue of himself, and we can’t spare a park sign for the people who gave us “Skinnamarink“?), the proposal was endangered by city policy, which discouraged naming things after people who hadn’t been dead for at least two years. Sharon, Lois, and Bram are all still very much alive, and in fact Sharon and Bram are still touring.

As with any given episode of The Elephant Show, there’s a heartwarming ending here. Thanks to a policy amendment that was approved by city council just last month, the city now allows things to be named after living people. The playground name change is up for final approval on January 15, and there’s every reason to expect it will happen in time for spring.