Ontario Premier Doug Ford escalated Canada’s pushback against President Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario on Saturday, unveiling a huge shoreline sign proclaiming, “Lake Ontario. Now and Always,” as Canadian political leaders increasingly turned to ridicule in responding to the president’s decree.
Ford, wearing a Team Canada soccer jersey, presented the enormous sign near Grimsby, Ontario, and posed alongside it for photographs. The billboard measures 24 feet across and 12 feet high and is mounted on 6-foot supports, placing its top approximately 18 feet above ground level. The declaration is displayed in French as well.
The sign was erected following Trump’s executive order directing U.S. federal agencies to use the name “Lake America” for Lake Ontario. The dispute is the latest source of friction between Washington and Ottawa following months of tariffs, Trump’s calls for Canada to become the 51st state and increasingly heated personal attacks between officials in the two countries.
Ford suggested that Trump had targeted the lake’s name because Ontario and the Canadian government had been willing to challenge Washington. He predicted that the Lake Ontario name would remain long after the current dispute had ended.
“Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario,” Ford said in a video posted on social media.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew joined the chorus of Canadian officials mocking the president, likening Trump’s latest renaming effort to an aging rock group trying to recreate the success of an old song.
“You know when a rock band is really over the hill and you see them like in a casino playing some song from like 50 years ago. I think that’s the part of Donald Trump’s presidency we’re at now, Like he thought they had a real hit, a real golden oldie, with the Gulf of Mexico,” Kinew said, referring to Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. “And he’s trying to bring back that, and he’s trying to play the hits for his base. But I think everybody here thinks it’s a little sad and it’s not his best work.”
Some of the most biting criticism came from outside Canada’s political establishment, including historian Robert Bothwell.
“The greatest country on earth takes this moron seriously?” Bothwell said.
Despite his mockery, Bothwell maintained that Trump’s actions toward Canada carry more serious implications than the fight over the lake’s name might suggest. He argued that the president ultimately wants “to subordinate Canada and at best make it a colony, at worst absorb it into the United States.”
University of Toronto professor emeritus Nelson Wiseman similarly characterized the dispute as part of a larger struggle over Canada’s relationship with the United States.
Wiseman said Trump “would like Canada to act like a vassal state, but it refuses to do so. That irritates him.”
The fight comes against the backdrop of a rapidly worsening trade relationship between the neighboring countries. U.S.-Canada negotiations collapsed last week, with officials from both governments accusing the other side of introducing new demands late in the talks. Ottawa has since announced retaliatory tariffs that are expected to take effect next month.
The Lake America order has also become part of an increasingly bitter personal exchange between Trump and Ford. During an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week, Ford invoked President Ronald Reagan while criticizing Trump’s approach to tariffs.
Ford said Reagan would be “throwing up” over the tariffs and would be “disgusted with President Trump.”
Trump responded with attacks of his own, characterizing Ford’s criticism as “bluster” and calling the Ontario premier a “flunky” of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. The president also mocked Ford as the “less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother” of the late Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.
Trump showed no indication Saturday that he was backing away from the Lake America designation. He reposted a meme depicting Canada geese with Trump-like blond hairstyles carrying rifles as they “protected” Lake America.
The president has repeatedly used geographic names and maps to make political statements. A map labeled “Gulf of America” was displayed for a time near the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, while Trump has posted other images depicting Canada as part of the United States or as its 51st state.
The name Lake Ontario, meanwhile, dates back centuries and has Indigenous origins. It comes from the Huron word “oniatarí:io,” meaning “lake of shining waters.” The province of Ontario, established in 1867, was itself named for the lake.
Wendat Nation Grand Chief Pierre Picard, whose people historically lived across territory stretching from the St. Lawrence Valley to the Great Lakes and whose language is the source of the lake’s name, accused Trump of seeking to wipe away Indigenous history.
“I want to tell him that it is unacceptable for us, as a nation, to have a president who can eradicate our history, our culture and our identity,” Picard said.
Carney has likewise refused to recognize Trump’s new designation, emphasizing the Indigenous history of the Lake Ontario name and pointing out that it predates both the establishment of Canada as a confederation and the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
While Trump’s executive order can determine the terminology used by U.S. federal agencies, the president has no authority to require Canada to abandon the Lake Ontario name or adopt “Lake America.”
