U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America” for U.S. federal use, adding a fresh point of contention with Canada amid an escalating trade dispute between the neighboring countries.
The Republican president signed an executive order that updated the lake's name for the U.S. geographic naming service. Trump cannot force Canada to follow his preferred naming convention, however.
The move is reminiscent of his move last year to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America.'"
Trump has been floating the idea of the name change in recent days as the U.S. announced it was imposing 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods over the weekend after talks between the countries broke down. Trump has been needling America’s northern neighbor since he returned to the White House last year, suggesting the ally with whom the U.S. once had warm relations should instead be absorbed as the 51st state.
Canada responded to Trump’s import taxes this week by imposing retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion worth of American goods, including steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment
Trump, who signed the order as he was sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, had a large sign behind him propped on a stand with a map of the Great Lakes. Over Lake Ontario, in big red letters, the map read "Lake America.”
On the other side of the president was another map with the words, "MAKING THE GREAT LAKES EVEN GREATER.”
He told reporters that Canada is "the worst” to deal with on trade. "They feel entitled and we can’t have that,” he said.
The lake is one of multiple Great Lakes that the U.S. and Canada share borders along.
The move, which Trump said was "effective immediately,” is reminiscent of his move last year to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America.’”
Trump on Thursday suggested his push to rename bodies of water may not be finished.
"So, if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean,” Trump said. "So maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them.”
The official U.S.-Canada border stretches across the water between Lake Ontario’s northern and southern shores. The body of water forms much of New York state’s coastline and separates Buffalo from Toronto, the capital of the province of Ontario. Toronto is Canada’s most populous city and Ontario its most populous province.
Ontario is also the single largest export destination for more than a dozen U.S. states.
The lake’s name comes from the Huron Indigenous people’s word "oniatarí:io,” which means "lake of shining waters,” and it predates European settlement in the region. The province, founded in 1867, took its name from the lake.
The International Hydrographic Organization - of which both the United States and Canada are members - works to ensure that the world’s seas, oceans and navigable waters are surveyed and charted uniformly, and also names some of them. But there is no single international body that determines names of international bodies of water.
