Ontario Premier Doug Ford puts up sign defending lake’s name
Ontario Premier Doug Ford installed a large sign on the Canadian shore reading “Lake Ontario. Now and Always.” This was a response to an executive order by US President Donald Trump providing for the lake to be renamed Lake America, BBC News reports.
Ford said the lake had been called Ontario long before Trump’s presidency and would retain that name after it. According to him, the sign is meant to remind the US president and others that the body of water is named Lake Ontario.
Renaming order
Trump signed the executive order on Thursday and said it took effect immediately. The document provides for the name to be changed to Lake America as it is recognized in the United States. Lake Ontario lies between the Canadian province of Ontario and the US state of New York.
The US Department of the Interior has 30 days to update the name in the Geographic Names Information Service, the official registry of geographic names in the United States. The US president has broad authority over how the country recognizes geographical features, but other countries are not required to apply such changes. Canadian officials rejected Trump’s initiative.
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Trade dispute
The war of words between the countries unfolded after trade negotiations collapsed. The United States imposed new 50% tariffs on Canadian goods worth a total of $20 billion, or C$28 billion. Canada plans to impose retaliatory tariffs next month on a “dollar-for-dollar” basis.
Trump also posted several videos created with artificial intelligence on social media. In one of them, he knocks over a Lake Ontario sign and replaces it with one reading “Welcome to Lake America.” In another, Canadian geese with the US president’s hairstyle and carrying guns patrol the shore of the body of water under its new name.
Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes. The names of Lakes Ontario, Huron, Michigan and Erie originate from Indigenous words, while the name of Lake Superior was formed from an Anglicized French word.
