Ottawa councillor brings motion to rename Trump Avenue, citing embarrassment

River Ward Coun. Riley Brockington introduced a notice of motion Tuesday to rename Trump Avenue, with debate set for council's September 23 meeting.

The move marks his second attempt. In 2021, a community-led effort to rename the street fell short: of the 62 households on Trump Avenue, 42 responded to a poll with 21 voting for a name change and 21 voting against. Brockington hand-delivered letters to every home "in the middle of winter" and followed up with those who did not respond.

"I'm embarrassed about a street in our city, let alone my ward, named in his honour," Brockington said in a statement. He said he deliberately waited until Trump's first term as U.S. president had ended, concerned at the time about potential retaliatory responses. "You name it and there's a retaliatory response," he said.

Since the idea resurfaced in recent weeks, Brockington has received what he described as "absolutely overwhelming volume of correspondence" from people across Canada, the United States, Australia, Greece, and the U.K.

Trump Avenue sits in the Central Park neighbourhood, west of Merivale Road and north of Baseline Road across from a parcel of the Central Experimental Farm. The neighbourhood was built in the late 1990s with many streets named after New York City landmarks, including Gramercy Park, Staten Way, and Bloomingdale Street. Trump Avenue was "simply thematically named" rather than proposed as a commemorative initiative, according to the source. At the time the street was named, Trump was known as a real estate mogul.

A new name for the street must comply with the city's street naming policies and could retain the New York City theme or deviate from it. The source notes the current street name "would not meet any of the criteria had it gone through a formal commemorative naming process" today.

Brockington is running unopposed and is poised to be re-elected by acclamation.