Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canadians know Lake Ontario will always be known by its original name, after U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to rename the Great Lake “Lake America.”
In a post on social media, Carney wrote:
“The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big”.
The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.
We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms.
Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on social media Thursday that “it’s Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world. Now and forever.”
The renaming comes amid an escalating trade dispute between the two countries, after negotiations collapsed last week and Canada announced retaliatory measures set to take effect next month.
