The man who saved Amherst

  In 1964 the city renamed Amherst. Or, more precisely, Paul-Emile Robert, a city councillor who headed both the toponomy commission and the French Quebec nationalist St. Jean Baptiste Society, arranged for Amherst to be renamed Christophe Colombe.
   The problem was that the peeps on the street wanted none of it. Hatter Armand Desmarais, who owned the shop at Amherst and St. Catherine, led some solid serious kick-ass opposition, which ultimately led to the street being named three things.
   Amherst, then Lafontaine Park Avenue and then Christopher Colombe.
   Gustave Lanctot, the eminent expert about everything, also opposed the name switch. After he died, two guys dug up Lanctot's body and chopped his head off.