Colby Cosh: Will Ottawa rename Trump Avenue as revenge for ‘Lake America’?

Read the original at National Post ↗
Cite

Cosh, C. (2026, August 28). Colby Cosh: Will Ottawa rename Trump Avenue as revenge for ‘Lake America’? National Post. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/colby-cosh-will-ottawa-rename-trump-avenue-as-revenge-for-lake-america

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

National Post · collected 2026-08-28 · by Colby Cosh analysis

Quick Summary

The opinion piece by Colby Cosh speculates that Ottawa may rename Trump Avenue as a response to Donald Trump's recent order to rename Lake Ontario, which he refers to as "Lake America". The column recalls that Trump Avenue was originally named after the real-estate developer in the 1990s for marketing reasons. The city council attempted to change the name in 2021 but failed to secure a majority vote.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-08-28, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

On August 25, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to rename Lake Ontario, a body of water shared by the U.S. and Canada, as "Lake America." This threat came amidst an ongoing trade dispute between the two nations, with Trump posting on social media that such a change would signal reduced business ties with Ontario. While Indigenous peoples originally named Lake Ontario centuries ago, experts argue that Trump's move is purely symbolic since he lacks authority to compel Canada to adopt this new name. Canadian officials responded by announcing retaliatory tariffs starting September 8, affecting approximately $20 billion worth of U.S. products including steel and processed cheese.

Written for “Trump Renames Lake Ontario” on 2026-10-16, grounded in this article and the 31 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Trump Renames Lake Ontario
Politics · 32 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans left and hedges 10% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
August 25, 2026 different event · 90%
Letters from an American
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 4% hedged 2 of 50
“Article A discusses a proposed name change of Lake Ontario to 'Lake America' and Canadian tariffs in retaliation for Trump's actions, while Article B talks about renaming Trump Avenue in Ottawa”
TIME
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 7% hedged 2 of 27 📰 publisher trust 60
“Article A refers to President Trump's suggestion to rename Lake Ontario, while Article B discusses the potential renaming of Trump Avenue in Ottawa as retaliation”
CBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 7% hedged 2 of 29 📰 publisher trust 77
“Article A describes an executive order to rename Lake Ontario, while Article B discusses a proposal to rename Trump Avenue in Ottawa”
Mother Jones
⚖️ Leans right further right than this 🔴 8% hedged 1 of 12 📰 publisher trust 95
“Both articles mention Trump's name change for Lake Ontario, with Article A mentioning it as a potential reason to rename Trump Avenue and Article B discussing Google's implementation of the name change”
National Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 5% hedged 1 of 19 📰 publisher trust 60
“Article A discusses a proposal to rename Trump Avenue in Ottawa, while Article B mentions President Trump's executive order to change the name of Lake Ontario to 'Lake America', which are two separate events”
The Guardian
⚖️ Leans strongly right further right than this 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 33 📰 publisher trust 67
“Both articles discuss the controversy over naming Lake Ontario, with references to Donald Trump's actions and the escalating trade dispute between Canada and the US”
Global News
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 8% hedged 4 of 53 📰 publisher trust 64
“Article A describes President Trump threatening to rename Lake Ontario 'Lake America', while Article B discusses the possibility of renaming Trump Avenue in Ottawa's Central Park neighbourhood”
Mother Jones
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 11 📰 publisher trust 95
“Article A describes President Trump issuing an executive order to rename Lake Ontario to 'Lake America', while Article B mentions Trump Avenue in Ottawa and speculates about a potential name change there, with no mention of Lake Ontario”
Al Jazeera
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 4 📰 publisher trust 60
“Article A discusses potential renaming of 'Trump Avenue' in Ottawa, while Article B reports on US President Trump's executive order to rename 'Lake Ontario' as 'Lake America', a different location and event”
National Post
⚖️ Leans right further right than this 🔴 31% hedged 4 of 13 📰 publisher trust 60
“Article A discusses a potential name change for Trump Avenue in Ottawa, while Article B reports on an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to 'Lake America', which is not related”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
20
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
10%
2 of 20 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
60/100
National Post's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
32
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-08-28 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

National Post · 929 article(s) · 2 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 2 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Colby Cosh
6 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 I’m afraid that has been my mood during the initial perusal of it, as much as I instinctively dislike the coming wave of oversimplifying “ALBERTA SECESSION WOULD COST THREE ZILLION GRILLION DOLLARS” headlines.
🔮 Some of you will have noticed a new and slightly shocking example of Canada’s longstanding case of information constipation: namely, the occurrence of Fifth China-Canada Defence Coordination Dialogue, which took place in Ottawa on Friday of last week.
🔮 I would say that’s a pretty decent number for the separatists, a base from which they might hope to work towards getting a third of the vote in the actual referendum.
🔮 I couldn’t help ruminating on yesterday’s news of a renewed push to find a more suitable name for Trump Avenue in Ottawa’s Central Park neighbourhood.
🔮 NDP Leader Nenshi never wanted to have a referendum in the first place, so one supposes any excuse for such a demand will do; maybe next week he’ll want the vote called off because of a comet or other celestial portent.
🔮 Cycling advocates sued on Charter of Rights grounds, claiming that the removal of the lanes would expose them arbitrarily to “grossly disproportionate” risk of injury and death.
Also by Colby Cosh
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 6 articles by Colby Cosh →

Topics

NYC New York Ottawa Wikipedia the White House

Subjects

Trump PERSON · 5× Donald J. Trump PERSON · 2× Ottawa ORG · 2× St. Petersburg GPE · 2× Calgary GPE · 1× Edmonton GPE · 1× NYC GPE · 1× New York GPE · 1× Wikipedia ORG · 1× the White House ORG · 1×

Narrative

What makes this case exceptional is that celebrity developer Trump turned President Trump has not only abused power in a multitude of ways and threatened the integrity of the Canadian state; he has just now followed through on his threats and ordered the U.S. federal government to rename Lake Ontario (as it renamed the Gulf of Mexico) in pursuit of his vendetta against Canada.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-08-28
🔮 I couldn’t help ruminating on yesterday’s news of a renewed push to find a more suitable name for Trump Avenue in Ottawa’s Central Park neighbourhood.

Claims (20 extracted, 2 hedged)

I couldn’t help ruminating on yesterday’s news of a renewed push to find a more suitable name for Trump Avenue in Ottawa’s Central Park neighbourhood. asserted
I → help → neighbourhood
We live in an era of woke iconoclasm — some would say in the dying days of one — but this is obviously a different sort of matter. asserted
this → live → matter
Trump Avenue started making national headlines in 2021, when city council polled residents about the offending nomenclature but failed to secure a majority in favour of a change that would involve some inconvenience and expense. asserted
that → start → inconvenience
Trump had just been ejected from the White House, a process accompanied by a smattering of violent resistance; perhaps the good people of Trump Avenue hoped he would retreat safely into the crumbling pages of history and spare them the trouble of revision. asserted
he → eject → revision
Didn’t we all. asserted
we → do → ?
In 2026, as in 2021, reporters covering the Trump Avenue controversy have been a tad elliptical about how Trump Avenue came by its name. asserted
Avenue → cover → name
One might be forgiven for thinking that the personal connection to Donald J. Trump was incidental; a photo caption on Wikipedia at the time of writing has the effrontery to describe the street as “indirectly named” for Trump. uncertain
caption → forgive → Trump
The truth is that the developers who turned an experimental farm into the Central Park subdivision in the 1990s named a street very directly after renowned real-estate developer Donald J. Trump for explicitly articulated marketing reasons. asserted
who → turn → reasons
All the streets in Central Park contain themed references to the posh parts of New York, but there is no original “Trump Avenue” in NYC. asserted
streets → contain → NYC
His name is just plastered all over the place — and in the ’90s that name still denoted glitz, wealth and commercial vision rather than destructive lunacy. asserted
name → plaster → lunacy
People were expected to want to buy property on Trump Avenue, and did buy it. asserted
People → expect → it
Those whose brains aren’t wriggling with ideological nematodes naturally prefer that the names of the byways they use and the places they inhabit be as permanent as possible, which is why so many of us fume over acts of re-naming contrived to serve as humiliation rituals or gestures of obeisance. asserted
many → wriggle → obeisance
This is, as it turns out, an excellent reason not to name or re-name things after living people, or in pursuit of other ephemeral trends. asserted
it → turn → trends
Even leaving all such considerations aside, it was stupid in the first place for Ottawa to tolerate the creation of a “Central Park” full of names imitating another capital’s landmarks. asserted
Ottawa → leave → landmarks
Developers cannot seem to resist this sort of crap, which is how Calgary and Edmonton recently sprouted twin outer-suburban neighbourhoods that are both called “The Hamptons.” asserted
that → seem → neighbourhoods
(Note: they do not resemble the Hamptons.) asserted
they → note → Hamptons
What makes this case exceptional is that celebrity developer Trump turned President Trump has not only abused power in a multitude of ways and threatened the integrity of the Canadian state; he has just now followed through on his threats and ordered the U.S. federal government to rename Lake Ontario (as it renamed the Gulf of Mexico) in pursuit of his vendetta against Canada. asserted
it → make → Canada
It might be one thing, an understandable but obnoxious thing, to impulsively rename Berlin, Ontario, because you are at war with a state that claims to represent all Germans. uncertain
that → rename → Germans
And, as we all know, his amour-propre has the size and flammable nature of a zeppelin: he will actually feel indignant and aggrieved if he gets wind that the impulsively named Trump Avenue has suddenly been re-branded. asserted
Avenue → know → zeppelin
One is tempted to suggest “Mamdani Boulevard” or “Ocasio-Cortez Way,” but let’s try for our own sake to achieve nirvana and exit the St. Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad-St. Petersburg cycle of political renamings. asserted
’s → tempt → renamings
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