'Nobody can believe it': Stouffville residents outraged by plan to replace garden with tank in Memorial Park

More than 1,000 people have signed a petition to 'Nix The Tank'

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 31, 2024
Simon Martin

When Stouffville resident Donna Dicostanzo heard the town was planning to get rid of the Canada 150 garden at Memorial Park, she couldn’t believe her ears. “I was in disbelief,” she said.

The longtime member of the Stouffville Horticultural Society remembers starting the garden in 2017.

“For the town to do this and now to get rid of it. There is thousands of dollars of trees and now they are going to waste all this money,” she said. “I’m trying to tell everybody that I can think of. Nobody can really believe it.”

Dicostanzo was one of several volunteers who worked in the Canada 150 garden every Wednesday during the spring, summer and fall.

The horticultural society was blindsided in December when council voted on moving the cenotaph from the Stouffville Legion to Memorial Park along with a demilitarized Leopard tank made available through the Department of National Defence.

The cost of the relocation and development of a new memorial area was estimated to be between $245,000 and $400,000 at the time and proposed to be at the same site where the Canadian 150 garden was located.

Horticultural Society secretary Debbie Lonergan said they only found out the garden was going to be removed when they looked at conceptual drawings for the proposed memorial, including the tank.

Mayor Iain Lovatt has since apologized for not having the horticultural society involved in the process and council has backtracked on plans for the memorial to hear more from the public before making a decision.

Additional public consultations will take place in the coming months where residents will have a chance to have their voices heard, Lovatt said.

“Because this is not a time-sensitive project it gives us the opportunity to do some additional public consultation,” Lovatt said. “From reaction from members of the community, it’s more than appropriate to have a little more public consultation.”

In the meantime, the Stouffville Horticultural Society has started a petition to save the Canada 150 Garden that, as of Jan. 29, had more than 1,000 signatures.

“I think the response has been positive,” Lonergan said. “So many people have said they knew nothing about the plans to include a tank.”

Lonergan said the horticultural society is hoping residents will write the mayor and council to let them know how they feel about the destruction of the garden and inclusion of a disused military tank.

“The only places that have Leopard tanks are military properties and museums,” she said.

While Aurora does have a tank at the Aurora War Memorial Peace Park on the east side of Yonge Street, Lonergan said that park has a very different feel than Memorial Park in Stouffville.

“It’s more the feeling of a cemetery,” she said of the Aurora War Memorial. “It has a completely different purpose and feel than our Memorial Park.”

Leopard tanks were first built in 1965. Canada’s armed forces used Leopard 1 tanks from 1977 to 2017. These tanks were used in Afghanistan and in various NATO missions.

Leopard 1 tank dimensions are: 31.3 feet long, 11.1 feet wide and 8.6 feet high. The tank weighs 42.2 metric tons.

Lonergan said the only places she could find that have Leopard tanks on display are the Georgina Military Museum in Keswick, the Base Borden Museum at CFB Borden and CFB Kingston and the Royal Military College.

“Most tanks on display are the World Ward II Sherman tanks. The Leopard tank is much bigger than that,” Lonergan said.

Lifetime horticultural society member Muriel Hoover said the town’s decision was originally made without any consultation with the horticultural society.

“Why are they bringing this tank into Stouffville?,” she said. “People living around the park are just furious.”

Hoover said the town has a long history of taking away the horticultural society’s gardens dating back to when the outdoor swimming pool was built.

There was the garden at the old station house and one at the leisure centre, all taken away by the town for various reasons.

“This isn’t new to us,” Hoover said. “It happens every so many years.”

Up until the Canada 150 garden, the horticultural society had given up working with the town. They made raised beds at Parkview Village instead.

“The town can’t take those away,” Lonergan said.

While some in the community don’t want to see the garden removed, there are others that are equally adamant they don’t want a tank in the town’s central park.

Community Mennonite Church sent a letter to the town of Stouffville stating its opposition to locating a demilitarized Leopard tank in the centre of town in Memorial Park.

“We understand and appreciate council’s desire to move the cenotaph to Memorial Park to honour and show respect for veterans and members of the armed forces who lost their lives in the line of duty. Our intention is not to diminish their sacrifice,” church council chair Susan Reesor said. “However, we oppose receiving and placing a military tank in our town park. A tank communicates a different message.”