Lake Ontario in Canada is now ‘Lake America’ — Trump’s renaming order is a ‘joke’ for Canadians

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday officially renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America. This move is seen as part of his ongoing trade conflict with Canada. The order updates the lake's designation in the United States, but it carries no legal weight outside American borders. It does not compel Canada, or the rest of the world, to use the new name.

The move comes after a weekend of increased tensions between the two countries. The US imposed 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, leading to retaliatory tariffs on Tuesday. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the renaming in a post on X, emphasizing the lake's Indigenous origins and its age. He framed the episode as part of a broader transformation under Trump, suggesting that America's trading relationships, foreign policies, national monuments, and now its hydronyms all seem to be shifting. Carney insisted Canadians would continue using the traditional name.

Both Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Canadian historian Robert Bothwell dismissed the renaming. Ford stated the lake will remain Lake Ontario to Canadians and the world. Bothwell called the renaming a "joke in an awful way" and warned that tech companies adopting the new name on their maps could provoke backlash and boycotts in Canada.

Online, the reaction was mixed, with some pointing out the absurdity of dropping Ontario from the mnemonic H-O-M-E-S, leaving behind the acronym S-H-A-M-E. Despite the symbolic nature of the dispute, it adds to the deteriorating relationship between Washington and Ottawa, with tariffs, trade retaliation, and now a renaming dispute all playing out in the same week.