Burlington Vermont is renaming a street in Canada's honour (for a while)
The City of Burlington, Vt., has announced it will rename one of its central avenues from Church Street to Canada Street, from now until Labour Day (or Labor Day as it’s known there).
The name change was presented by a group of city councillors at their June 16 meeting, led by Councillor Becca Brown McKnight, who wore a maple leaf shirt and handed out Canadian flags to the other councillors.
“We have been fed up with Donald Trump’s damaging and insulting rhetoric towards Canada,” Brown McKnight told CTV News this week. “Renaming a street is something quick and easy for us to do, but also sends a message that we are in this fight with you.”
Church Street, named after the First Unitarian Universalist Church that sits at its north end, is a pedestrian-only retail hub of downtown Burlington and home to its popular Church Street Marketplace.
Vermont’s most populous city at 45,000, Burlington is less than 100 kms from the Quebec border by car, and is in one of two states where French is the second most common language spoken after English, the other being Louisiana. So it has also offered Rue de Canada as the French-language name for the street. Back in 2011, Burlington’s city council also voted to add French to its local signage , though the move was a recommendation rather than a law.
The new resolution passed unanimously, although one councillor expressed frustration with “performative” actions and said she hopes there will be further actions taken to support tourism and local businesses. Burlington city council says that more than 15 per cent of its summer tourism dollars typically come from Canadian visitors. However, visits by Canadians to the U.S. have fallen off since Donald Trump’s tariff threats and talk of annexation.
In the 1960s, the city joined with Burlington, Ont., to found the Burlington International Games , which eventually expanded to include Burlington, Iowa, and some non-Burlington cities, before ceasing in 2010 due to limited participation.
The city says it will spend US$3,000 to change signage and hold celebratory events in honour of the designation.
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.