ON SEPTEMBER 11TH 2012......

York Guardian

Weston’s late, great Peter the Barber is set to be honoured with his own laneway after west-end councillors voted unanimously against city staff recommendations rejecting the name change Tuesday at Etobicoke York Community Council (EYCC).

The unnamed public lane extending west from John Street to Elsmere Avenue will be known as Pantelis Kalamaris Lane, after the iconic owner of Peter’s Barber Shop, following Tuesday’s vote.

Kalamaris’ son, Peter Kalamaris Jr., pleaded with councillors at Tuesday’s meeting to put aside city staff recommendations to deny his father the honour of namesaking a laneway in his beloved Weston because of mere procedure.

“Councillors, we are just a few weeks away from the one-year anniversary of my father’s passing,” he said, noting that Kalamaris died last October. “I truly hope that today, on Sept. 11, you will all stand united with our family and honour my wish, my family’s wish, and my community’s wish of honouring my father by naming the laneway...as Pantelis Kalamaris Lane.”

In their report to EYCC, city staff urged councillors not to approve the proposed name, as it didn’t comply with the city’s Honourific and Street Naming Policy that states “honourific names shall only be awarded posthumously to individuals who have been deceased for at least two years,” and because the proposed name uses both Kalamaris’ first and last names, whereas the policy dictates only the last name be used.

Kalamaris’ son objected to the latter: “Respectfully, all of this outpouring of emotion and love is for one man – my father, Pantelis. This was never an initiative about the Kalamaris family, that’s why an alternate naming suggestion of the laneway as just Kalamaris Lane is not an option for our family,” he said. “It was always about one man – my father, Pantelis Kalamaris.”

Laura Albanese, MPP for York South-Weston, was one of close to 2,000 citizens who signed a petition to allow the name change.

“Entrepreneurs like Mr. Kalamaris are the heart of communities like Weston,” she wrote in a letter to EYCC, read aloud by Peter Kalamaris at Tuesday’s meeting. “I believe that giving the lane both his first and last name is a great nod toward the contribution he made and the lasting legacy he leaves behind.”

After immigrating to Canada from Greece in his early 20s, Kalamaris settled in Weston and in 1961 set up his now-iconic barber shop on John Street. He also sponsored his brothers to come to Canada, and helped them set up their own businesses in Weston: Sun Crisp Fish and Chips, and P and M Restaurant, which remain family-owned.

The most famous of them, though, is Peter’s Barber Shop. Known far and wide for its unofficial hockey museum – complete with signed NHL jerseys on the wall – the shop has boasted a roster of NHL customers from Scotty Bowman, to Gordie Howe, to Dave Keon over the years.

Kalamaris, however, didn’t live long enough to partake in his shop’s 50th anniversary celebrations late last October; he had died just weeks earlier of complications from pneumonia.

In recognition of all of Kalamaris’ hard work as a community builder in Weston, longtime York South-Weston Councillor Frances Nunziata put forth a motion granting the Kalamaris family’s application an exemption from the Honourific and Street Naming Policy.

“When you see people going down John Street, you just know they’re going to Peter the Barber,” she said, recognizing Kalamaris’ popularity in the Weston community. “We have overwhelming support from the community (to name the laneway Panelis Kalamaris Lane). Initially when the process was first started, we had hundreds of names on the petition, and even today have received a lot of correspondence in support of it.”

Nunziata’s fellow councilors agreed, voting unanimously in favour of naming the laneway Pantelis Kalamaris Lane.

– with files from Tamara Shephard