Mark Carney has publicly rebuked Donald Trump over the president’s executive order renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America.”
The Canadian Prime Minister, 60, fired back on X after Trump signed the directive Thursday, making “Lake America” official U.S. Policy for federal geographic records. The lake, bounded by Ontario to the north and New York to the south, has carried its original name for more than four centuries.
Carney posted a pointed history lesson aimed directly at the White House. “The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big’,” he wrote. “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.”
The Wendat-derived name predates both the 1867 Confederation of Canada and the 1776 Declaration of Independence, Carney noted. His response made clear that while Trump can dictate American paperwork, Canada will simply ignore the change.
Trump had been telegraphing the move for days. He initially floated the idea earlier in the week, stating Washington was giving “serious consideration” to the rename because it did not expect to be doing much business with Ontario. He escalated by posting a map with “Lake America” scrawled over Lake Ontario and appearing in a video crossing out the existing name with a Sharpie.
By Thursday, the gesture became formal policy. Speaking in the Oval Office during the signing, Trump declared: “The Lake of America was something I’ve been thinking about for a long time actually.”
He insisted the move carried no broader message. “No message,” he told the press. “As you know, Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade, very sadly. Even the military, you know, we defend Canada for nothing, we don’t get anything.”
Trump also called Canadian government officials “nasty people” and joked about further geographic ambitions. “Now all we need is an ocean,” he said. “Maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.”
The president’s order faces a significant practical limitation. The United States does not own Lake Ontario outright. Because the lake straddles the international border, Washington can only control what its own federal agencies call it. The order does not compel Canada, international organizations, businesses, or private mapping services to adopt the new name.
American officials at the state level have already pushed back. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said her state will not use Trump’s preferred name. Republican Vermont Governor Phil Scott went further, describing the move as “petty and disappointing.”
During the signing, Trump referenced his earlier decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, claiming that name has become “very routinely” used. That 2025 order, issued after Trump returned to the White House, similarly only applied to U.S. Federal purposes and failed to persuade Mexico or much of the world to abandon the original title. The Press Association and other organizations still refer to it as the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf rename also triggered a legal dispute between Mexico and Google, which altered its maps display. Google Maps users in the U.S. See “Gulf of America,” users in Mexico see “Gulf of Mexico,” and those elsewhere see “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).”
The current standoff leaves two names in circulation for the same body of water, with usage split along the international boundary that has defined it for generations.
Trump is scheduled to continue his second-term policy push with additional executive actions in Washington.