The Canadian capital Ottawa has begun the process of removing U.S. President Donald Trump’s name from one of its streets, amid growing tensions between Canada and the United States.
Ottawa City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to begin renaming Trump Avenue, a residential street in the city’s Central Park neighbourhood. Councillor Riley Brockington, who introduced the motion, said the change represents “a new beginning” and that residents would be involved in choosing the new name.
The street was named Trump Avenue when the neighbourhood was developed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The area was designed around a New York City theme, with nearby streets carrying names such as Central Park Drive, Bloomingdale Street and Staten Way. Trump’s name was chosen at the time because he was known primarily as a New York real-estate developer.
The decision comes as relations between Ottawa and Washington have deteriorated over trade and other disputes. Brockington said the continuing trade war and its effects on Canadian industries were among the reasons he believed it was time to change the name. Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has also said he does not want anything in the city named after Trump, citing what he described as the U.S. president’s hostility toward Canada.
The move also comes amid a series of controversial geographic renamings by Trump’s administration. Trump has ordered the U.S. federal government to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” and to restore the name Mount McKinley for Denali. In August 2026, he also signed an executive order directing the U.S. government to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America.”
The Canadian councillor’s stated reasons focused on the street no longer meeting the city’s standards for commemorative names, along with the wider political and economic tensions between Canada and the United States.
The renaming process is expected to include public consultation, with new names expected to be considered before a final decision is made.
