Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has rejected Donald Trump’s attempt to rename Lake Ontario, insisting the Great Lake will retain its historic name despite the US president’s declaration that it should become “Lake America.”
Lake Ontario is the smallest by surface area of the five Great Lakes and lies between Canada’s Ontario province and New York state.
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“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,” Mr Carney wrote on X.
“Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Mr Trump said the new name would take effect immediately.
“The Canadian officials have treated us very badly. They’re nasty people,” he said.
The latest dispute comes as Canada’s lead negotiator in trade discussions with Washington expressed optimism over the US position on the French language and Canadian culture. Ottawa has also separately exempted seafood products from planned counter-tariffs.
US President Donald Trump signing the order to rename the lake
Mr Trump said the idea had been under consideration for some time, drawing a comparison with his administration’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.
“The lake change, Lake of America, was something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, actually. As you know, we took something called the Gulf of Mexico, we changed it, and now it’s very routinely the Gulf of America,” Mr Trump said.
“So, if you think about it, 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.”
US-Canada trade negotiations broke down at the last possible moment last week, before Mr Trump’s tariffs came into force on Saturday.
Canada answered with matching tariffs on Tuesday, prompting its prime minister to declare: “You’re at war when you get attacked. We got attacked.”
That same day, Mr Trump said he was giving “serious consideration” to renaming Lake Ontario Lake America.
He followed up with a TikTok video late yesterday, saying he planned to proceed with the change.
The proposal follows Mr Trump’s January 2025 decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
That order required the US federal government to use the revised designation, but Mexico has rejected the renaming and it has not gained international recognition.
Although Lake Ontario shares its name with the Canadian province, the name comes from the Indigenous Huron term “Ontari’io,” meaning “great lake” or “beautiful water,” according to the National Museum of the Great Lakes.
Toronto, Canada’s largest city, is located along the lake’s northwestern shore.
Mr Trump’s second presidential term has seen him anger several allies with a series of sweeping territorial claims, including his suggestion that Canada should become the 51st US state.
He has also asserted US claims over Greenland, the autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and discussed making Venezuela a state after US forces captured its leader, Nicolas Maduro.
In recent days, Mr Trump has additionally said he would make the Strait of Hormuz, which separates Iran and Oman, a US territory, even as the war with Tehran continues.
