Ontario Premier installs billboard affirming Lake Ontario name after U.S. rename order
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a large sign reading “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename the lake “Lake America,” while Canadian officials criticized the move.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a 24-by-12-foot billboard near Grimsby, Ontario, bearing the message “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” in English and French. The sign, mounted on 6-foot legs, rises about 18 feet above ground and was displayed as Canadian leaders reacted to President Donald Trump’s executive order directing U.S. agencies to refer to the waterway as “Lake America.”
Ford said the renaming attempt was an effort by Trump to rewrite the lake’s name, adding that “Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario.”
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew likened Trump’s approach to an “aging rock band” trying to revive an old hit, while historian Robert Bothwell warned that the broader aim was to “subordinate Canada.” University of Toronto professor emeritus Nelson Wiseman noted that Canada’s refusal to act as a “vassal state” irritates the U.S. president.
The dispute coincides with strained trade relations, as recent negotiations between the two countries collapsed and Canada announced retaliatory tariffs. Earlier in the week, Ford criticized Trump’s tariff policies, prompting Trump to dismiss Ford’s comments as “bluster.”
Indigenous leaders also responded; Wendat Nation Grand Chief Pierre Picard called the renaming an attempt to erase Indigenous history, and Prime Minister Mark Carney emphasized the name’s Indigenous origins and its longstanding use predating both Canadian Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence.