Canada hits back at Trump, defending Lake Ontario’s 400-year-old name

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 28 — Canada has rejected US President Donald Trump’s decision to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America”, with Prime Minister Mark Carney insisting the waterway’s more than 400-year-old name will remain “then, now and always.”

Trump signed an executive order on Thursday directing the US government to use “Lake America” in federal references, saying the change was effective immediately.

The order gives the US Department of the Interior 30 days to update the name in the Geographic Names Information System, the official repository of US domestic geographic names.

Trump signs order to rename Lake Ontario

The move escalates tensions between Washington and Ottawa following the collapse of trade talks last week and the imposition by the US of new 50 per cent tariffs on about $20 billion (C$28 billion) worth of Canadian goods.

Canada has said it will respond with “dollar-for-dollar” counter-tariffs from September 8.

Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of renaming the lake during the trade dispute, arguing that Canada has taken advantage of the US in trade.

Speaking as he signed the order in the Oval Office, Trump said the move was not intended as a direct message to Canada, but linked it to what he described as longstanding trade grievances.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” Trump said, adding that the US already had a gulf and a lake and joking that “all we need is an ocean.”

Canada: It is Lake Ontario

Carney responded by pointing to the history of the name, saying Lake Ontario dates back more than 400 years, predating both the Canadian Confederation and the US Declaration of Independence.

“We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms,” Carney said in a social media post.

“Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford also rejected the change, saying it was “Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world. Now and forever.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul, whose state is the only US state bordering the lake, similarly said New York would not adopt the proposed name.

“We’ll always call it Lake Ontario,” Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly said earlier this week.

The lake is shared by Canada and the US, with about 52% of its surface area in Canada and the remainder in New York.

Its name is derived from the Wendat word Ontari’io, meaning roughly “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.”

Can Trump rename a shared lake?

The US president has broad authority over how the US federal government officially recognises geographic features, but that authority does not extend to forcing other countries or international bodies to adopt a new name.

There is no universally recognised international body responsible for naming international waters, meaning the executive order primarily affects US federal usage.

Canada is therefore under no obligation to recognise the change.

Democratic lawmakers in the US have also criticised Trump’s decision.

Michigan Congresswoman Debbie Dingell said she would introduce legislation seeking to nullify the renaming, calling it “idiotic” and arguing that the Great Lakes are a shared resource protected by generations of Americans and Canadians.

Other US politicians mocked the decision. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers jokingly declared that he had renamed Lake Michigan “Lake Wisconsin” after signing a napkin.

Vermont Governor Phil Scott called Trump’s move “petty and disappointing”.

Echoes of Gulf of America

The dispute echoes Trump’s decision in January 2025 to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” for US federal purposes.

Mexico rejected that change, arguing that a single country could not unilaterally rename a shared international body of water.

Google subsequently adopted different naming conventions depending on a user’s location: US users see “Gulf of America”, while users in Mexico see “Gulf of Mexico” and users elsewhere see both names.

The Gulf of America decision also triggered a legal dispute between the Trump administration and Associated Press after the news agency declined to adopt the new name in its coverage.

Name change comes amid trade war

The Lake Ontario decision comes as relations between the two North American neighbours have deteriorated sharply.

Trade negotiations collapsed late last week after three days of talks, with Washington and Ottawa blaming each other for the breakdown.

Trump’s administration subsequently imposed 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian exports, while Carney announced retaliatory tariffs on selected US goods.

The latest dispute has included disagreements over Canadian French-language requirements, US demands concerning Canada’s future trade agreements and tariffs affecting Canadian vehicles.

Despite the deterioration, Canadian US Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Thursday that Washington had withdrawn some demands concerning French-language labelling and indicated that measures supporting French language and Canadian culture would not be subject to future US trade actions.

LeBlanc said the developments could create the possibility of returning to negotiations.

For now, however, the Lake Ontario dispute has added another symbolic flashpoint to an increasingly bitter trade and diplomatic confrontation.

The lake’s historic name may therefore remain unchanged in Canada and much of the world even as “Lake America” enters official US federal usage.