'Lake Ontario. Now and Always': Canada mocks Trump's 'Lake America' decree

“Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario,” Ford said in a video posted on social media. Trump last week issued an executive order directing US federal agencies to refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America”, adding another flashpoint to increasingly strained relations between the two neighbours.

Ford said Trump was seeking to rename the lake because Ontario and Canada were “standing up for ourselves”. The move has been met with ridicule across Canada, where political leaders and commentators have mocked the US president rather than expressing outrage.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew compared Trump’s campaign to rename geographic landmarks to an ageing rock band repeatedly playing an old hit.

“You know when a rock band is really over the hill, and you see them like in a casino playing some song from like 50 years ago,” Kinew said, referring to Trump’s earlier executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

He said Trump appeared to be “trying to play the hits for his base”, adding that Canadians viewed the latest effort as “a little sad” and “not his best work”. Canadian historian Robert Bothwell was even more scathing, questioning why what he called Trump’s behaviour was being taken seriously.

Bothwell, however, warned that the dispute should not obscure what he sees as a broader objective by Trump to subordinate Canada and potentially absorb it into the United States. University of Toronto professor emeritus Nelson Wiseman similarly said Trump wanted Canada to behave like a “vassal state”, but that Ottawa had refused to do so.

Trade tensions deepen. The naming dispute comes as relations between the longtime allies deteriorate over trade. Trade negotiations between Canada and the US collapsed last week, with both governments accusing the other of making last-minute demands.

Canada has since announced retaliatory tariffs that are due to take effect next month. The latest clash also follows an escalating exchange between Trump and Ford. Ford this week that former US president Ronald Reagan would be “throwing up” over Trump’s tariff policies and “disgusted with President Trump”.

Trump responded by dismissing Ford’s comments as “bluster”, calling him Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “flunky” and mocking him as the “less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother” of the late Toronto mayor Rob Ford.

Trump continued promoting the “Lake America” name on Saturday, reposting a meme depicting Canada geese with blond hair resembling his own and carrying rifles as they supposedly “protected” Lake America.

The US president has repeatedly used maps and geographic names to make political points, including displaying a “Gulf of America” map in the Oval Office and sharing images depicting Canada as part of the United States or as the 51st state. Indigenous history at centre of dispute.

The controversy has also drawn attention to the Indigenous origins of the name Lake Ontario. The name is derived from a Huron Indigenous word meaning “lake of shining waters”, while the Canadian province of Ontario later took its name from the lake.

Wendat Nation Grand Chief Pierre Picard criticised Trump’s move as an attempt to erase Indigenous history and identity. “I want to tell him that it is unacceptable for us, as a nation, to have a president who can eradicate our history, our culture and our identity,” Picard said.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has also rejected Trump’s renaming effort, pointing to the lake’s Indigenous roots and noting that its name predates both Canadian Confederation and the US Declaration of Independence. While Trump can direct US federal agencies to use the name “Lake America”, he cannot compel Canada to adopt it.