Ottawa’s Sir John A Macdonald Parkway to be renamed to Indigenous name

The name change for the John A. Macdonald Parkway was first suggested by three city councilors in 2021 following the discovery of unmarked graves at a former residential site in British Colombia, CBC News reports.

Chief Dylan Whiteduck of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation and the band council of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation had also requested a name change.

Norm Odjick, a board member from Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council spoke at Thursday's meeting in support of the name change.

"That's a very important area for the Algonquin people. The river that's there, the Ottawa River, and the other waterways nearby, that was our highways … one of the main ways we'd get together to gather and trade," Odjick said. "So it's got a very significant cultural significance."

John A. Macdonald's name has only graced the parkway for a little over a decade. Prior to 2012, the 10-kilometre (6.2 miles) stretch of road was named the Ottawa River Parkway after the river beside which it runs, according to CBC News.

"For the next 150 years, anyone who's coming onto the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, who bothers to get to know him a little bit better and understands what he did for Canada, and why he's as relevant today as he was 145 years ago, I think there's a payoff," Ottawa historian Bob Plamondon said in 2012 after the NCC voted to make the change to honour the first prime minister. "I think lots of people care."

Over the coming months, the name will be decided in consultation with elders and other members of the Algonquin Nation. The proposed name will be presented and voted on by the NCC in June, with the official unveiling ceremony planned for September 30, coinciding with the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

This decision from the NCC is in keeping with the latest trend of removing Macdonald's name and legacy from the public sphere. Woke activists have defaced and toppled numerous statues of the first prime minister across the country, notably in Montreal and Toronto in 2020, while some educational and cultural institutions have voted to scrub the John A. Macdonald name from their legacy.