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Petition Asks Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart To Name A Street After Ryan Reynolds

The "Deadpool" actor said the change.org petition was "very kind."
Ryan Reynolds appears virtually on the Tonight Show on May 5, 2020.
NBC via Getty Images
Ryan Reynolds appears virtually on the Tonight Show on May 5, 2020.

More than 2,000 people have signed a petition asking for a street in Vancouver to be named after Ryan Reynolds.

The petition to Mayor Kennedy Stewart was started on Thursday by radio host Kevin Lim, and says it’s time for “Vancouver’s favourite son” to have a street named after him.

The petition goes on to laud Reynolds for his many philanthropic contributions and for elevating his native’s city’s profile on the world stage.

“Not only has he captured our hearts on the big screen, his humanitarian efforts have made him a beloved local treasure who encapsulates the best of Vancouverites, and fully deserving of this recognition in his hometown,” the change.org page reads.

The “Deadpool” actor responded to the petition on Twitter, writing “very kind but hard pass.”

“If traffic sucks everyone will say, ‘Ryan Reynolds is a mess’ or ‘Ryan Reynolds is really backed up’. My brothers would enjoy this too much,” he joked.

Reynolds was born in Vancouver in 1976 and though he’s skyrocketed to Hollywood fame, he’s never forgotten about his hometown. Even his Twitter handle @VancityReynolds is a tribute.

He’s used his fame and money for good over the years. Earlier this week, he and his wife, actress Blake Lively, donated $500,000 to be split between Covenant House Vancouver and Covenant House Toronto which provide homeless youth with basic needs like food and shelter and help prepare them to live independently.

This year, he made a PSA encouraging people to vote, put out COVID-19 warnings at the request of B.C. Premier John Horgan and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and sent personal protective equipment to Nova Scotia to help keep health-care workers stay safe.

He also started the “Group Effort Initiative” production diversity program to bring recruits from marginalized communities to work with professionals on film sets. The money to pay the recruits, and their housing and travel costs, were all coming out of Reynolds’ salary for his next movie.

Over the summer, he helped spread the word about a priceless missing teddy bear that would play a recording of a Vancouver woman’s late mother’s voice — helping the bear return to its rightful owner.

In June, he and Lively donated $200,000 to an institute at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia to help promote Indigenous women’s leadership. A few weeks later, he donated to a fund for an Edmonton toddler’s life saving $3-million treatment. He also took time to film a commencement speech video for students graduating from his old high school in 2020 (and bought every graduate a large pizza).

Vancouver doesn’t really have streets named after people who are still alive — a fact the petition acknowledges — but with twelve streets named after Walter Scott novels and characters, (yes really!) naming one after a still-living actor who has contributed so much to the world around him doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch.

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