“Lake Ontario. Now and Always.” These words appear on a massive billboard along the lake’s Canada-side shoreline. Ontario Premier Doug Ford is behind the move. They addressed this message at United States President Donald Trump as part of their ongoing feud. According to the pugnacious Premier, the name stood long before the president, and “Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be Lake Ontario.”
President Donald Trump signs the executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America in the Oval Office with the map in the background. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Last Thursday, the U.S. president signed off on an executive order that seeks to change Lake Ontario’s name to Lake of America. To press the message home, he then posted a series of inflammatory AI videos on social media. One featured a flock of Canada geese patrolling the shoreline of Lake America, holding rifles and sporting Trump’s trademark hair.
Ford states that Trump’s only motivation for these actions is his resentment over Canada and Ontario’s resistance to him. The war of words kicked off after trade talks between the two neighbouring nations collapsed. The United States will impose new 50 percent tariffs on the $20 Billion yearly Canadian imports to the country. In retaliation, Canada intends to enact “dollar for dollar” retaliatory tariffs starting next month.
Google Maps Listing Changes to Lake America
The order effectively directs Doug Burgum, the Interior Secretary, in conjunction with the Board of Geographic Names to “take appropriate action.” This involves updating the Geographic Names Information Service, the domestic repository of official geographic names, to reflect the new change. On Thursday afternoon, Trump shared an email confirmation from the agency stating that official online documentation is now changed. All printed documents will follow. All printed documents will follow.
People around the world woke up to a surprise at the realization that on Google Maps, the change is in effect. According to the global tech company, on the heels of the administration’s compliance, it is going to comply. For users in the United States, the map will show “Lake of America.” Users in Canada are going to see “Lake Ontario.” The rest of the world will see both – much in the same way that the Gulf of Mexico/America situation is handled. As of Sunday, Apple Maps, which conformed to the administration’s name change over the Gulf of Mexico, is yet to implement the proposed change.
The longstanding names of the Great Lakes – Erie, Michigan, Huron, and Ontario – all originate from indigenous roots. Lake Ontario is the smallest of the four. It straddles the border between the U.S. state of New York and the Canadian province. Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, weighed in as well, saying that the name is over 400 years old, predating the Declaration of Independence as well as the Confederation of Canada.
This latest controversy is reminiscent of the furor over President Trump’s push to rename the Gulf of Mexico to The Gulf of America. After that success, he topped off his baiting with the statement that “..we have a Gulf and a lake. Now all we need is an ocean.”
