City to vote on adding Vandal’s name to Bonivital Pool

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This article was published 03/02/2026 (227 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The city is fast-tracking a motion to rename a pool in honour of former St. Boniface MP and city councillor Dan Vandal.

Days after the Riel Community Committee voted for a report on the feasibility of renaming the Bonivital Pool the Dan Vandal Bonivital Pool, the motion sent to the executive policy committee for a vote on the name change.

St. Boniface Coun. Matt Allard said he hopes both city council and the public agree to the name change as “an appropriate honour” given Vandal’s service to St. Boniface and St. Vital for more than a quarter century.

“It is most excellent that the pool sits right in between the neighbourhoods of St. Boniface and St. Vital given that he represented both areas, with many years of service as councillor for St. Boniface ward and more as the MP for the St. Boniface-St. Vital constituency,” Allard said Tuesday.

One councillor said she voted against the motion because she believes people should be honoured in other ways.

“I just have felt for a long time now that we should, as a society maybe, think about moving away from naming things after people,” said Coun. Emma Durand-Wood (Elmwood-East Kildonan).

“Just because of that long-term piece of what we know now is not what we know in the future… there are lots of ways to honour people. I personally think the best way to honour somebody we think is a good example is to continue their work in our work.”

Earlier in life, Vandal, 65, was a professional boxer and was ranked No. 1 in the Canadian middleweight division.

He was a youth worker and was vice-president of the Old St. Boniface Residents Association when he was elected to city council in 1995. He served until 2004, when he ran for mayor and lost to Sam Katz. He was re-elected as a councillor in 2006.

He was elected Liberal MP in 2015 and served as Northern Affairs Minister from 2019 to 2024, as well as minister responsible for the Prairies Economic Development Agency of Canada and the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency.

Vandal could not be reached for comment.

— with files from Joyanne Pursaga

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca