Ontario now has a university library named after former premier Mike Harris, but when will it get around to remembering Bob Rae and David Peterson? Both Rae and Peterson preceded Harris as premiers, so it might be thought their time to have something concrete, or at least bricks and mortar, named in their honor has come .

Eric Dowd But naming places after politicians can be controversial, as those advocating the distinction for Progressive Conservative Harris discovered, in his case because because he often fought others in education, including teachers.

Any proposal to remember Rae, who was a New Democrat when premier, would stir resentment among non-New Democrats who recall his massive spending in government, and today’s NDPers who regard him as a renegade, because he left their party seeking better personal opportunities with the traditionally more successful federal Liberals.

A proposal to commemorate Peterson would meet less opposition, but not much enthusiasm, because his time as premier did not bring any notable advance and he frittered away his chance to continue and tended to be frivolous. He once quipped, “maybe they will name an outhouse after me.”

The trend once was to name provincial buildings after premiers; Leslie Frost, Mitchell Hepburn, Oliver Mowat, James P. Whitney and John S. Macdonald have buildings in the Queen’s Park complex named after them. But the province is not building these days and unlikely to be soon, because of the cost.

The last ex-premier before Harris to be commemorated was Frank Miller, who held the office for a few months in 1985, and this was by a municipality, not the province

The District of Muskoka, where he lived most of his life, named a scenic route through its lakes and forests The Frank Miller Memorial Route, which would have pleased the unusually modest Miller, who sold cars while an MPP and was not too proud to kneel on buyers’ driveways and screw on their licence plates.

The province named a medical research institute, specializing in stroke and heart disease, after Conservative premier John Robarts, who killed himself after suffering a series of strokes. His name is remembered more through the fortress-like Robarts Library at the University of Toronto, although he once remarked good-humouredly, “it’s the ugliest building in the city and it has my damned name on it.”

Conservative William Davis probably has more named after him than any other ex-premier. There are William Davis schools are everywhere. Friends and particularly provincial employees set up a fund to provide

scholarships to help educate promising children of provincial employees. A Toronto centre for geriatric care named a wing after him and University of Waterloo named a computer research centre after him.

There also was a move to name the domed sports stadium, perhaps the most renowned new building in Toronto in the 1980s, after Davis.

Those supporting it included Peterson, then premier, who said Davis was the driving force behind the dome’s construction and the province’s greatest sports fan, and “frequently has been seen braving the chill winds blowing off Lake Ontario to lend his support to sports.”

But others objected that Davis was a latecomer and the building initially became known as the SkyDome.

Davis probably relished most the province’s naming of a new courthouse in Brampton after him and his father, Grenville Davis, which may seem minor because Davis was the longest-serving premier of recent decades.

But it was appropriate, because father and son both began practising law there and the son never made a speech as premier without referring to Brampton and was known as “Brampton Billy.”

But those who have buildings named after them also run risks. The province opened a centre last year to house problem youth and named it the Roy McMurtry Youth Centre after the former attorney general and chief justice, and so many violent crimes have been committed there media have called it a “hellhole.”

Few public figures would want their names attached to that.