Canadian PM defends 'Lake Ontario' name after Trump renaming order

OTTAWA/WASHINGTON — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday that the name "Lake Ontario" carries a long history and that Canadians will always use this name regardless of external changes.

Carney wrote in a post on X that the name came from the Wendat word Ontari'io, which means "the lake is beautiful, the lake is big".

The prime minister made the remarks after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier on Thursday, directing the Department of the Interior to rename the lake "Lake America", as trade tensions between the United States and Canada have been escalating.

The two sides failed to reach a trade deal on Aug 21, and the United States imposed a 50-percent tariff on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods on Aug 22. Canada responded by announcing "dollar-for-dollar" retaliatory tariffs on imports from the United States, set to take effect on Sept 8.

The name is more than 400 years old, "predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America", added the prime minister.

"We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms," Carney said.

"Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always," he wrote.

Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes of North America, straddles the US-Canada border, with the Canadian province of Ontario to the north and the US state of New York to the south.

The move came just two days after Trump said on social media that the United States is giving "serious consideration" to changing the name of Lake Ontario to "Lake America", citing that "we don't expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer".

Trump's attempt to rename the lake came as a recent breakdown in trade talks between the two countries led to new retaliatory tariffs.

Canadian officials have already said they will not recognize the new name. Canadian Minister of Industry Melanie Joly said Canada will always call the body of water Lake Ontario.

The latest executive order marks the second time Trump has challenged the long-standing name of an international body of water and unilaterally renamed it for US use.

On Jan 20, 2025, the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order directing the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America", drawing opposition from Mexico and others.

At Thursday's signing event, Trump again touted the move: "We have a gulf, and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean. So, maybe we'll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we'll change them both."

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on social media: "New York won't be calling it that."

Phil Scott, the Republican governor of Vermont, on Thursday called Trump's decision "petty and disappointing" on the social media platform X.

XINHUA-AGENCIES