Mark Carney Masterfully Lays Out Why Lake Ontario Will Never Be 'Lake America' Despite Trump's Executive Order

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney laid out why Lake Ontario will never be known as "Lake America" after President Donald Trump made good on his threat that the United States would recognize that body of water by a different name.

Trump's threat followed the collapse of Canada-U.S. negotiations over a new trade agreement before a midnight deadline on Friday of last week. Trump threatened to impose a 50% tariff on Canadian vehicles starting in 2027.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has already pledged to respond with dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs to the new 50% U.S. tariff on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian goods that took effect over the weekend.

In a Truth Social post earlier this week, Trump declared:

"The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don't expect to [be] doing much business with Ontario any longer. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

Trump later signed an executive order directing U.S. government agencies to refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America.” The change applies only to official U.S. government usage and does not alter the lake’s name in Canada or in international usage.

Carney responded to the controversy with posts on X in both English and French, pointing out that the lake’s name dates back more than 400 years—long before the creation of Canada as a federation and the United States’ Declaration of Independence.

He 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."

You can see his post below.

Many have celebrated Carney's response and criticized Trump in turn.

In his executive order, Trump said that "The United States is the greatest protector of the Great Lakes, including the body of water currently known as Lake Ontario." He insisted that "Without the security and investment provided by the United States, this freshwater system would not be open for shipping, recreation, and responsible use to the same extent as it is today."

It was swiftly criticized by Democrats, including Michigan Representative Debbie Dingell, who said that the "Great Lakes are a shared treasure that generations of Americans and Canadians have worked together to protect."

Dingell said she is already "introducing legislation to keep Lake Ontario as Lake Ontario and block President Trump's idiotic order."