Ottawa City Council Votes to Rename Trump Avenue

The Ottawa City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to begin the process of renaming Trump Avenue, a residential street in the city's Central Park neighborhood. The decision follows escalating trade tensions between Canada and the United States and a recent executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump that renamed Lake Ontario as Lake America.

Councilor Riley Brockington is leading the effort to remove the name, while Mayor Mark Sutcliffe expressed support for the move. Sutcliffe noted the logistical burden for the 62 households involved, who would need to update legal documents and addresses. Proposed replacement names include Canada Avenue, Obama Avenue, and Taco Avenue, the latter being an acronym for "Trump Always Chickens Out."

City policy requires the approval of at least 50 percent plus one of the street's residents and a public engagement process before a name change is finalized. A similar attempt to rename the street in 2021 failed to reach a majority. Consequently, no final action is expected until after municipal elections in late October.

Councilor Tim Tierney cautioned that the dispute is a distraction from more critical issues. He argued that the focus of the government should remain on trade and tariffs rather than the semantics of street names.