President Donald Trump’s threat to have Lake Ontario renamed Lake America for US federal purposes has drawn near-uniform dismissal from Canadian politicians, who say the lake’s name will not change on their side of the border regardless of what Washington decides to call it.
Trump announced the move in a Tuesday morning post on Truth Social, writing that the US is ‘giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America’ because, in his words, ‘we don’t expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer.’ He followed up by posting a picture of the lake with its name crossed out and replaced by ‘Lake America’ in a bold metallic font.
Canadian politicians dismiss Lake Ontario renamed Lake America threat
Ontario Premier Doug Ford set the tone for the Canadian response, telling CBS News on Tuesday: ‘I have to laugh when he comes up with these ideas.’ Ford added: ‘It’s always going to be Lake Ontario here in Canada. And, you know, that’s up to the president. If he wants to name it Lake America, Lake Trump, whatever he wants to do, that’s his prerogative.’
Canada’s Minister of Industry, Mélanie Joly, was equally direct at a Tuesday press conference. ‘We’ll always call it Lake Ontario. Period,’ she said, adding that the Canadian government would ‘be smart and strategic, and fight back’ while the current tensions play out.
Canada’s Minister for Internal Trade, Dominic LeBlanc, took a deliberately low-key position when asked about the renaming threat by CNBC. ‘We’ve decided as a federal government months ago not to respond to sort of the daily social media posts of either the president or his cabinet secretaries,’ he said, pointing instead to the federal government’s focus on its own economy and on maintaining what he described as a ‘constructive relationship’ with the US government.
Prime Minister Mark Carney also rejected the move, according to Fox News, making clear that Canadians have no intention of following Washington’s lead on the name change.
Renaming comes amid escalating US-Canada trade tensions
The Lake Ontario episode is not Trump’s first foray into renaming North American geography. He previously ordered the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed the Gulf of America, and Mount Denali in Alaska was renamed Mount McKinley.
The renaming threat did not emerge in isolation. On Saturday, Trump imposed a new wave of 50% tariffs on certain Canadian goods, including alcohol and construction materials. The BBC reported that the new tariff measures applied to $20bn (C$28bn) worth of Canadian goods. On Monday, Trump threatened a further round of 50% tariffs on goods including auto parts and steel, set to take effect from January.
Canada moved quickly to retaliate. On Tuesday, Ottawa announced tariffs of as high as 50% on American goods, covering steel, dairy, and electronics, among other categories. Those measures are set to take effect from September 8.
For now, the Canadian government’s position on both the trade dispute and the geographic rename appears consistent: firm in language, deliberate in action, and unmoved by the social media announcements coming from Washington. Canada’s retaliatory tariffs taking effect on 8 September will be the next concrete test of how far that firmness extends.