Woah! To support conservative Premier Danny Williams and protest the federal Liberals giving Newfoundland the shaft over off-shore oil, Marie Routhier changed her name to Marie Johnston.
To explain a little background to this dispute, Newfoundland is Canada's poorest province, despite being rich in numerous resources including off-shore oil. The reason for the poverty is that the federal government has Newfoundland in a welfare trap whereby they take most of Newfoundland's tax revenue through claw-backs, but cuts them a check through transfer payments.
The current Premier of the province is trying to break this cycle, and Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin promised Newfoundland (when it looked like the province would vote Conservative) that by Christmas this year a deal would be worked out, no strings attached, whereby Newfoundland could keep its off-shore oil revenue. It worked come election. Of course, Paul Martin lied, probably figuring that after the election he could simply blow Newfoundland off since he controls their purse string. Which is what he did. Nevertheless, Premier Danny Williams has nerve of stone. He stood up for his province and ordered the Canadian flag removed from all government buildings in the province. In Canada, this is the supreme political sacrilege any politician can commit, but the future livelihood of his province depends upon the feds keeping their election promise.
So how does this tie into Marie Johnston, formerly Marie Routhier. And why is Marie's name change big news? Well to begin, twenty-five year old Marie is probably Canada's most famous fashion designer among swimmers, gymnists and figure skaters. In fact, she designed the official swimwear for Team Canada Synchronized Swimming. She also designed a line of patriotic (albeit somewhat immodest) swimsuits around the Canadian flag -- a line she is now discontinuing.
Raised in a single-parent family, she was quite poor. She began sewing at a very young age as a figure skater, because her mother couldn't afford to buy the outfits the other kids had. By her teens she ended up swinging this into a full-time career, and operated her company out of Newfoundland for several years where she fell in love with the province. She also fell in love with the conservative ideals of Premier Danny Williams, and moved back when he won the election. Her replacement line will be known as "Republic of Newfoundland". Nevertheless, she's forfeiting a lot of name recognition in changing her name, as every Canadian recognizes "Marie Routhier" but not "Marie Johnston".
But how does the name change tie into all this? Johnston is the maiden name of Marie's mother, who raised. Routhier, on the other hand, is the family name of her father who abandoned her when she was a baby. Where this becomes highly political is that Marie's paternal great-great-grandfather is Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier, who authored the original French lyrics to "O Canada!" which is our national anthem. So this is a pretty big shot fired across the bow of Canadian culture by one of its young leaders.
