Ontario Premier Defends Canadian Tradition Against U.S. Renaming Order
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford installed a prominent sign reading “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename the lake “Lake America.” Canadian officials criticized the move, defending national heritage and sovereignty.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford acted decisively by unveiling a 24-by-12-foot billboard near Grimsby, Ontario, proudly displaying the message “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” in both English and French. The sign, mounted on sturdy 6-foot legs and rising 18 feet above ground, was presented as Canadian leaders responded to President Donald Trump’s executive order directing U.S. agencies to call the waterway “Lake America.”
Ford firmly rejected the U.S. attempt to rename the lake, stating, “Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario.”
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew compared Trump’s move to an “aging rock band” trying to revive an old hit, while historian Robert Bothwell warned that the U.S. aims to assert dominance over Canada. University of Toronto professor emeritus Nelson Wiseman noted that Canada’s refusal to be a “vassal state” continues to frustrate the U.S. president.
The dispute comes at a time of tense trade relations, with recent negotiations breaking down and Canada announcing retaliatory tariffs. Earlier in the week, Ford criticized Trump’s tariff policies, but Trump dismissed Ford’s remarks as “bluster.”
Indigenous leaders also weighed in. Wendat Nation Grand Chief Pierre Picard called the renaming an attempt to erase Indigenous history, and Prime Minister Mark Carney emphasized the lake’s Indigenous origins and its longstanding name, predating both Canadian Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence.