Canadian politicians say President Donald Trump can rename Lake Ontario on the map if he wants to — it won’t change what they call it.
In a Tuesday morning Truth Social post, Trump wrote that the US is “giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America” as “we don’t expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer.”
He later posted a picture of the map of Lake Ontario with its name crossed out and replaced by “Lake America” in a bold metallic font. His threat comes as trade tensions between the two countries flare.
But Canadian politicians shrugged off Trump’s message.
Talking about Trump, Ontario Premier Doug Ford told: CBS News on Tuesday: “I have to laugh when he comes up with these ideas.”
“It’s always going to be Lake Ontario here in Canada. And, you know, that’s up to the president,” Ford added. “If he wants to name it Lake America, Lake Trump, whatever he wants to do, that’s his prerogative.”
Canada’s Minister of Industry, Mélanie Joly, said in a Tuesday presser, “We’ll always call it Lake Ontario. Period.”
“We’ll just stand up for what we have. And meanwhile, I really think that, while all these shenanigans are happening, we’ll just be smart and we’ll be strategic, and we’ll fight back,” Joly added.
CNBC asked another politician, Canada’s Minister for Internal Trade Dominic LeBlanc, about the Lake Ontario renaming threat.
LeBlanc responded, “We’ve decided as a federal government months ago not to respond to sort of the daily social media posts of either the president or his cabinet secretaries and so on.”
He said the Canadian government was focused on its own economy and on maintaining a “constructive relationship” with the US government.
Lake Ontario is the latest target on Trump’s list of natural landmarks to rename. Last year, he ordered the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed the Gulf of America. Mount Denali in Alaska was renamed Mount McKinley.
Trump’s threat comes as US-Canada trade relations are going downhill again. On Saturday, Trump imposed a new wave of 50% tariffs on certain Canadian goods, such as alcohol and construction materials. On Monday, he threatened another batch of 50% tariffs on goods like auto parts and steel, set to take effect from January.
Canada retaliated on Tuesday with tariffs as high as 50% on American goods, including steel, dairy, and electronics, among other things. These are set to take effect from September 8.
