Trump orders Lake Ontario renamed ‘Lake America,’ Canada rejects change
President Trump has signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America, but Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his country will continue to call it Lake Ontario.
The order, issued Thursday, directs the Interior Department and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to change the name within 30 days and remove all references to Lake Ontario from the federal government’s geographic names database.
Lake Ontario borders New York to the south and east and the Canadian province of Ontario to the north, west and southwest. The order says the deepest parts of the lake are in U.S. territory and that the United States holds most of its volume.
It also directs federal agencies to use Lake America on maps, contracts, documents and other communications. The order cites U.S. investment in the Great Lakes, Coast Guard icebreaking operations and the lake’s role in shipping, energy production and trade.
“Canada’s been ripping us off for a long time on trade,” Trump said after singing the order. “So we’re going to be doing tariffs on their cars that are coming in, substantial level, because we want to make the cars here.”
In a statement, Carney said the name Ontario comes from the Wendat word “Ontari’io,” which means “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big,” and said it predates both Canada’s Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence by more than 400 years.
“Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario, then, now and always,” Carney added.
Canada’s retaliatory counter-tariffs on hundreds of U.S. products are scheduled to take effect at 12:01 a.m. on Sept. 8.
The post Trump orders Lake Ontario renamed ‘Lake America,’ Canada rejects change appeared first on BNO News.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
