What to know
- Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. federal government to call Lake Ontario “Lake America.”
- The order only applies to U.S. federal use, and Canada is not required to recognize the new name.
- Torontonians described the move as silly, unnecessary and disrespectful.
- Residents said they have no plans to stop calling it Lake Ontario.
Torontonians aren’t exactly on board with Donald Trump’s decision to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America.”
The U.S. president signed an executive order Thursday directing the U.S. federal government to use “Lake America” in its official maps, databases and communications, but the move does not require Canada to recognize the new name.
Now Toronto asked Torontonians what they thought of the change, and the response was largely one of disbelief, with some calling the move silly, unnecessary and disrespectful.
One Toronto woman described the decision as “goofy,” arguing that Trump has more pressing issues to focus on.
“There are so many things that are happening south of the border that the president could be focusing on, like the affordability crisis, wars and genocides,” she said.
Instead, she said, it feels “really silly” for Trump to be focused on renaming a lake that Canadians are unlikely to call anything other than Lake Ontario.
“I would be shocked if people I knew suddenly started saying Lake America,” they said.
Another Torontonian took issue with the name change on historical grounds, pointing to the Indigenous roots of the word Ontario.
“It’s really disrespectful because the word Ontario comes from Indigenous roots,” she said.
The resident said changing the name effectively overlooks that history in an attempt to make a political point.
When asked whether Canadians would actually start using Trump’s preferred name, they didn’t hesitate.
“Absolutely not.”
The history of the name has also been highlighted by Prime Minister Mark Carney, who pointed out that Lake Ontario’s name comes from the Wendat word “Ontari’io,” meaning “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.”
The name is more than 400 years old, Carney said, predating both Canadian Confederation and the Declaration of Independence of the United States.
“We know that America is changing,” Carney said in a post on X. 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,” he said.
A third Torontonian was more amused by the whole situation, saying the lake can technically have more than one name.
“Lakes can have many names,” they said. “It can have a stupid name and a normal name,” they said.
They added that Trump’s decision was hardly surprising, saying it was “something he would do.”
But regardless of what the U.S. government chooses to call it, they said they’ll continue calling it ‘the lake,’
Trump’s executive order applies to U.S. federal use of the name. Canada is not required to adopt “Lake America,” meaning the lake’s longstanding name remains unchanged in Canadian government use.
