A verbal dispute between Donald Trump and Canada continued on Saturday regarding the US government's administrative renaming of Lake Ontario. Canada responded by erecting a giant sign near Grimsby, Ontario, declaring "Lake Ontario. Now and Always." In contrast, the US President posted a video of himself kicking over an avatar of a Lake Ontario sign, replacing it with one that read "Lake America," and dancing.
This rhetoric over the lake's name is the public face of an escalating trade dispute between the US and Canada. The dispute involves a 50% US tariff on Canadian steel and retaliatory tariffs from Ottawa. Trump had issued an executive order on Thursday directing US agencies to refer to the lake as Lake America.
Google Maps has updated its service for US users to reflect the president's executive renaming order, displaying "Lake America." Google stated that its practice is to reflect name changes in official government sources, noting that Trump's order affects the US's federal Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). However, Google also confirmed that the name change does not affect Canadian naming conventions or how the rest of the world refers to the lake, with Canadian users continuing to see "Lake Ontario" on Google Maps.
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney has rejected the renaming, highlighting that Lake Ontario's name derives from an Indigenous Wendat word meaning "the lake is beautiful, the lake is great" and dates back over 400 years. Ontario Premier Doug Ford stated that the name would outlast the president, while Wendat Nation grand chief Pierre Picard called the move an attempt to erase Indigenous history.