Ontario Premier Doug Ford has fired back at US President Donald Trump by unveiling a large sign on the Canadian shoreline declaring the body of water will remain known as “Lake Ontario”.
The move came after Trump signed an executive order seeking to rename the lake “Lake America”, despite the waterway being shared by Canada and the United States.
Standing beside the newly installed sign, Ford said the lake had carried the name Lake Ontario long before Trump became president and would continue to do so long after he left office.
“Long before President Trump, this lake was called Lake Ontario. Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario,” Ford said.
Trump has also shared a series of AI-generated videos on social media mocking the dispute. One video depicted him kicking over a Lake Ontario sign before replacing it with another bearing the words “Welcome to Lake America”.
Another AI-generated clip showed Canada geese with hair resembling Trump’s and carrying rifles while patrolling the shoreline of the renamed lake.
Ford said Trump’s decision appeared to stem from his dissatisfaction with Ontario and Canada standing up for their interests.
“Just in case President Trump or anyone else forgets, we’ve set up this sign to remind them, it’s Lake Ontario, now and forever,” he said.
The latest dispute comes amid deteriorating trade relations between the two countries after negotiations collapsed. The United States has imposed new 50% tariffs on US$20 billion (C$28 billion) worth of Canadian goods, while Canada plans to introduce matching counter-tariffs next month.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has previously rejected the proposed name change, saying the waterway should continue to be referred to by its established name.
Although Trump has authority over how geographical features are officially recognised within the United States, his executive order does not compel Canada or other countries to adopt the new name.
Under the order, the US Department of the Interior has 30 days to update the name in the Geographic Names Information Service, the country’s official database for domestic geographical names.
Lake Ontario is the smallest of North America’s five Great Lakes and lies between Ontario and New York state. Its name, like those of Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Erie, has Indigenous origins.
The dispute mirrors Trump’s earlier attempt to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” after returning to the White House in 2025. Mexico rejected that move, arguing that one country cannot unilaterally rename a shared international body of water.
The Gulf naming dispute also triggered a legal row involving Google after the technology company changed the name displayed on its mapping service. Users in the US see “Gulf of America”, while those in Mexico see “Gulf of Mexico”, with users elsewhere seeing both names.
