Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected President Donald Trump’s decision to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” pointing to the centuries-old history behind the Great Lake’s indigenous name.
Carney responded Thursday in a post on X after Trump signed an executive order formally changing the lake’s name for federal purposes in the United States.
“The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big,’” Carney wrote.
The Canadian prime minister said the Lake Ontario name has been used for more than 400 years. He noted that its use predates both the Canadian Confederation and the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
“We know that America is changing,” Carney continued. “Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms.”
However, Carney made clear that Canada would not recognize the Trump administration’s new designation for the shared body of water.
“Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always,” he said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford joined Carney in refusing to adopt the name Lake America. The Great Lake borders both New York and the Canadian province of Ontario.
“It’s Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world,” Ford wrote on social media. “Now and forever.”
Trump signed the executive order Thursday after first floating the idea earlier in the week as a trade war between the United States and Canada continued to intensify.
The president’s order changes the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America for U.S. federal purposes. However, the order does not have authority outside the United States.
The decision follows a similar action Trump took on the first day of his second term, when he signed an executive order changing the Gulf of Mexico’s name to the “Gulf of America.”
The dispute over Lake Ontario comes as Washington and Ottawa remain locked in an escalating battle over trade.
Trump imposed 50% tariffs on $20 billion in Canadian imports. He separately threatened to place additional 50% tariffs on automotive imports and steel beginning Jan. 1, 2027.
Canada answered Trump’s actions with retaliatory tariffs scheduled to take effect Sept. 8. Carney vowed that his government would match the president’s latest tariffs “dollar for dollar.”
The Canadian government later exempted seafood from the approaching tariffs.
Although Trump’s executive order establishes Lake America as the U.S. federal government’s official name for the body of water, Carney and Ford firmly maintained that Canadians would continue calling it Lake Ontario.
Carney grounded his rejection in the lake’s indigenous history, while Ford declared that the long-established name would remain in use in Canada and across the rest of the world.
