Mark Carney hits back after Donald Trump 'renames' Lake Ontario

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday (local time) rejected US President Donald Trump’s move to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America, declaring that the iconic water body would remain known as Lake Ontario “today and forever.” In a social media post following Trump’s signing of an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America, Carney said the lake’s original name dates back 400 years, long before Canada and the United States existed in their current forms.

"The name of Lake Ontario derives from the Wendat word « Ontari’io », which means « the lake is beautiful, the lake is great. This name dates back more than 400 years, well before the Canadian Confederation and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America," the Canadian prime minister wrote on X.

"We know that the United States is changing. Their trade relations, their foreign policy, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadian women and men also know that things must be called by their name, and this lake is called Lake Ontario – today and forever," he added.

Earlier, Trump signed the executive order directing the US geographic naming service to refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America.” The decision applies to the lake’s official designation by US authorities, but Washington has no authority to compel Canada to adopt the new name. The move comes after Trump’s earlier decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” for use by the US government. He signed the Lake Ontario order at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, with a map of the Great Lakes — five lakes that straddle the border between the two countries — displayed behind him showing the words “Lake America” in large red letters over Lake Ontario.

The “renaming” comes amid another escalation in the US-Canada trade dispute after talks broke down last week over what Canada described as “last-minute” changes by the US side, as well as disagreements over other key issues. Washington subsequently imposed 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, while Ottawa responded with retaliatory tariffs on goods worth a similar amount. Trump has repeatedly criticised Canada since returning to the White House last year. He has also suggested that Canada should become the "51st US state," despite the two neighbours being long-standing allies.