When it comes to putting a name to Chicago's annual battle against its infamously inclement weather, it turns out that the practical is also the political.
“Abolish ICE” was the top vote-getter in the city's “You Name a Snowplow” contest. Choosing the protest slogan with a double meaning proved a potent way for voters to jab at President Donald Trump after he sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers into the city and its suburbs last fall in a major immigration crackdown.
With a surge of ICE officers beginning in September, “Operation Midway Blitz” resulted in more than 4,000 arrests, a fatal shooting and a sour taste among Chicago's Democratic leaders and many of its residents, particularly in large immigrant populations. Despite mid-winter frigid cold, “ICE Out” protests in recent weeks have continued downtown, near ICE facilities and throughout the suburbs.
The snowplow-naming contest, in its fourth year, also produced winning names ranging from those paying tribute to the new pope, who hails from Chicago, to a homegrown horror purveyor and the popular quarterback of the city's NFL franchise. The top six winners will get a snowplow named in their honor.
In a statement, Mayor Brandon Johnson thanked Chicago voters “for their unmatched creativity, sense of humor, and civic pride."
When asked whether he was reticent about the potentially prickly response to the name, a spokesperson said that “Abolish ICE” was the runaway winner, adding, “The people of Chicago clearly have no issue with the name of this snowplow."
Requests for comment were also emailed to ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security.
Contests in many cities produce names of snowplows, but they rarely carry the edge of Chicago's top pick. In Nashville, “Dolly Plowton” pays homage to Tennessee native and country music legend Dolly Parton, while in Minnesota, pop superstar Taylor Swift is honored on a plow dubbed “Taylor Drift.”
Chicagoans are capable of more anodyne names, too. Other winning contest names this year include “Stephen Coldbert," for late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert. There's “Pope Frio XIV,” with the Spanish word for “cold” rhyming with the Chicago-born pontiff's name, Leo.
Then there's the “Blizzard of Oz” and “Svencoolie,” a play on the Chicago TV horror host, Svengoolie; and finally, “Caleb Chilliams” for the quarterback whose last name is Williams, and who led the Bears to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years.
Johnson said he and his Department of Streets and Sanitation, which maintains 300 trucks to clear 9,400 miles (15,000 kilometers) of streets, are “grateful and inspired by the record-breaking participation in the contest this year." There were 13,300 plow names submitted and 39,000 final votes were cast.
The contest was conducted the same way as it was in the past three years, said Ryan Gage, spokesperson for the Streets and Sanitation department. Submissions are made to the Chicago Shovels website. A survey app is used for both initial and final phases of the contest.
A group of Streets and Sanitation staff members then reviews all the submissions and chooses the finalists, which are then forwarded to the mayor's office for final approval, Gage said.
O'Connor reported from Springfield, Ill.
FILE - A man crosses Wacker Drive in front of a waiting city snowplow in Chicago, Jan. 28, 2019. (Rich Hein/Chicago Sun-Times via AP, File)
TORONTO (AP) — The leader of Canada’s most populous province said Monday “the walls are closing in” on President Donald Trump after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down many of Trump’s tariffs and said he’s also looking forward to the U.S. midterm elections in November which could further constrain Trump.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Canada is in an “economic war” right now and said no deal is better than a bad deal with Trump.
“It’s very challenging right now. I just sit back some days, and I am not the only one. Everyone in the world sits back. How can one person, one man, create so much turmoil around the world? Not just here in Canada but around the world. It is pretty staggering. So I can’t wait for the midterms,” Ford said.
The court’s decision Friday struck down tariffs Trump had imposed on nearly every country in the world using an emergency powers law. Trump now says he will use a different, albeit more limited, legal authority.
“It was a positive message from the Supreme Court,” Ford said.
Most of Canada’s exports to the U.S. are covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada trade pact , or USMCA, but some tariffs are taking a toll on certain sectors of Canada’s economy, particularly aluminum, steel, autos and lumber.
Ford warned Trump could scrap the free trade deal that is under review this year.
Ford said other countries like Japan and the U.K. “rushed in to get a deal and all of a sudden, he turned on them like a rattle snake. We’re going to be cautious.”
Ford noted many Republican seats will be up for grabs in November’s elections for control of the House and the Senate, including a number of them next door in Michigan.
The premier also noted the House voted earlier this month to slap back Trump’s tariffs on Canada, a rare if largely symbolic rebuke of the White House agenda as Republicans joined Democrats over the objections of GOP leadership. The resolution seeks to end the national emergency Trump declared to impose the tariffs, though actually undoing the policy would require support from the president, which is highly unlikely. It next goes to the Senate.
“The walls are closing in on President Trump,” Ford said. “You saw him lose the vote and six Republicans crossed the floor with Congress and then you saw the Supreme Court.”
Ford said the tariffs are causing inflation.
“Down in the U.S. people are feeling the crunch. They don’t see the prices going down with food and other goods. That all has come down to the uncertainty that he’s put around the world and his number one customer in the world,” Ford said.
Trump recently threatened to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada over that country’s proposed China trade deal, intensifying a feud with the longtime U.S. ally and its Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“There is always a diplomatic risk for foreign politicians to criticize President Trump so bluntly and publicly, as his thin skin is now legendary," said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal. "For instance, last fall, the president reacted very negatively to an Ontario’s anti-tariff ad featuring Ronald Reagan by suspending trade talks between Canada and the United States.”
Béland said Ford's comments are consistent with what Canadians think, noting Trump is highly unpopular in Canada.
FILE - Premier of Ontario Doug Ford speaks to reporters, accompanied by other Council of the Federation members, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, file)
