Donald Trump signed an executive order yesterday renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” The name Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io — “beautiful lake” — and it’s been on maps since before the Declaration of Independence existed. Four hundred years of Indigenous naming, erased because a man who can’t find most countries on a map decided a body of water shared with another country needed a more patriotic brand. The Interior Department has 30 days to update the federal database. Canada is not required to adopt the change. Canada will not.
This is what happens when you run out of leverage. The 50% tariffs on Canadian imports kicked in last week — lumber, dairy, furniture, hockey sticks — all hit with duties that American consumers will pay at American cash registers. The USMCA, the trade deal Trump personally signed, says none of this is supposed to happen. And instead of negotiating, the president renamed a lake. He did the same thing to the Gulf of Mexico and to Denali. The Wendat named this water centuries before either country drew a border through it, and now it’s been rebranded by a man who thinks renaming things is the same as owning them. That’s not foreign policy. That’s a toddler writing his name on someone else’s toy.
Carney called it what it is: “This lake is called Lake Ontario — today and forever.” The name is older than both countries arguing over it. You can update a line in a federal database. You can’t rename water.