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Political leaders in Canada are speaking out against an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, saying the move is offensive and doesn’t hold water north of the border.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a post on social media platform X on Thursday that the name of Lake Ontario has not changed.
“It’s Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world. Now and forever,” Ford said.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles also said the name of the lake has not changed.
“Let’s get to work. And one other thing: it’ll always be Lake Ontario,” Stiles said in a video posted to the social media platform X.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to rename the lake. One of the five Great Lakes, Lake Ontario is located between Ontario and New York. The province of Ontario, founded in 1867, took its name from the lake.
Sitting near a map with the label “Lake America” over the body of water, Trump said “entitled” Canada has been difficult to deal with and repeated claims the country was ripping off the United States.
“They want to be treated like a state, but they are not a state,” Trump said.
First Nation ‘outraged, appalled, shocked’
The Wendat Nation took a stronger stance, saying it condemns the executive order because it is an attempt to “eradicate” its history.
Grand Chief Pierre Picard, official spokesperson for the Wendat Nation, said in a statement posted to Facebook on Thursday that the First Nation refuses to remain silent on the issue.
“Outraged, appalled, shocked: there are no other words to describe how I feel following President Trump’s decision to rename Lake Ontario ‘Lake America,'” Picard said.
“For our Nation, the name Ontario embodies history, culture, and identity. To call this name into question is an abhorrent and unspeakable act,” he added.
“Just like his presidency, this name change once again sows confusion and strikes a direct blow to the very heart of our Wendat identity.”
Picard said the U.S. Consul General in Quebec City has confirmed that he will meet with the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, in the coming days.
“Let us remember that the word Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontarïio’, meaning ‘the lake is beautiful, great.'”
Move ‘won’t weaken our resolve as Canadians’: Chow
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, who represents the largest city on the shores of Lake Ontario, also refused to give the renaming any legitimacy.
“Donald Trump’s antics won’t weaken our resolve as Canadians,” Chow said Thursday in a post on X.
Earlier this week, before the executive order, Chow had said idea of renaming the lake is “not very neighbourly.”
In a post on X on Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney also said the lake’s name is not changing. He said it dates back more than 400 years, before Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
“We know that the United States is changing. Their trade relations, their foreign policy, their national monuments, their hydronyms,” Carney said.
“Canadian women and men also know that things must be called by their name, and this lake is called Lake Ontario — today and forever.”
The renaming, which Trump said was “effective immediately,” is reminiscent of his move last year to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America.”‘
