While Trump is making things worse with Canada by trying to rename a lake and adding big tax costs, there’s a little-known fact that might make many Canadians feel embarrassed: there’s a street in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, named after Donald Trump.
Now Ottawa is planning to respond in the most petty and funny way possible: taking the name Trump Avenue off the street and replacing it with something that would really upset Trump, just like he has made many Canadians upset.
On Wednesday, the Ottawa City Council voted unanimously to start the process of renaming the street, which has had Trump’s name on it for about 25 years.
Some of the suggested new names include “Obama Avenue,” “Canada Avenue,” “Beaver Avenue,” “Pelosi Avenue,” “Rosie O’Donnell Avenue” (which is a way to show the ongoing conflict between Trump and Rosie O’Donnell), and, best of all, “Taco Avenue” — a fun way to reference the phrase “Trump Always Chickens Out.”
The timing of this vote is perfect.
It happened just one day before Trump signed an order to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” which followed his earlier renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.Councilor Tim Tierney made it clear that he noticed the connection: “We see the president doing something similar and it’s boring.Stop with the silly name game and let’s get back to the table.”
Tierney also made it clear that this isn’t really about being petty or symbolic for Ottawa — it’s a reaction to Trump’s own escalating childish behavior during a serious trade war that’s hurting real people on both sides of the border.
“The meaning behind names, we can deal with that later,” he explained.”Right now, our attention needs to be on trade and taxes, and this is just a distraction.”
This isn’t the first time people have tried to rename the street.
In 2021, a vote among the 62 homes on the block — shortly after the January 6th events — ended in a tie, with 21 people for and 21 against, with the rest not voting.Tierney pointed out that the opposition wasn’t necessarily because people liked Trump, but because of the trouble of changing address labels.
The renaming process is expected to take time, and it will need majority support from the residents.
A public engagement process won’t begin until after the Ottawa municipal elections in late October.
Still, it’s satisfying to watch Trump start a small international argument over renaming lakes and gulfs, only to possibly face the same kind of treatment he’s been giving to Canada.
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