President Donald Trump stated Tuesday that he is considering changing the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” as the trade war between the United States and Canada intensifies.
This potential change would echo the Republican president's previous unilateral action last year, when an executive order renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
The U.S. and Canada are currently engaged in a trade dispute, with Canada anticipated to announce retaliatory measures on Tuesday. This follows the Trump administration imposing 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods over the weekend after bilateral talks failed.
“The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer,” Trump said Tuesday via social media.
Ontario is Canada's most populous province and hosts the nation's auto industry.
Rhetoric between the two nations continues to rise, as Trump told Canadian leaders Monday they must “fall in line” or face consequences "far WORSE" than current tariffs. Prime Minister Mark Carney has accused Washington of attempting to subordinate Canada.
Trump also threatened new 50% tariffs on Canadian vehicles, auto parts, and steel, while Carney asserted that U.S. trade demands indicated Washington sought to “destroy our major industries,” including autos, steel, and aluminum.
Canada and the United States share one of the world’s largest trading relationships, featuring deeply integrated supply chains across autos, energy, agriculture, and manufacturing, making a prolonged trade conflict potentially costly for businesses and workers on both sides of the border.
Businesses and consumers are facing uncertainty regarding potential price increases.
Michael Howard II, who owns a furniture business in Warren, Michigan, near Detroit, commented that the tariffs would impede “the ability for us to put food on the table for our family, but also impacts the ability for us to give back to our community.”
Howard and his wife established their business a decade ago, manufacturing and selling items ranging from dining room tables to bookcases.
“To say that we don’t need Canada is just disingenuous,” he stated. “It’s dishonest. And it’s just absolutely not truthful. We need our neighbor, but also they need us.”
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne and three other Cabinet ministers are also expected to release details on support for workers affected by tariffs Tuesday morning. Carney had previously indicated Monday that Canada might need to shift away from dollar-for-dollar matching of U.S. tariffs toward more targeted retaliation designed to protect Canadian businesses and workers.
“An attitude at the negotiation table that Canada is a subsidiary of the United States” is “not something we’re going to accept,” Carney said.
Carney was even more direct when speaking in French.
“We learned during the negotiations that the Americans want to destroy our major industries, including autos, steel and aluminum,” Carney stated. “That was one of the main reasons we said no. It was a bad deal.”