Canada’s industry minister has rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion to rename Lake Ontario. Mélanie Joly retaliated that Canadians will “always call it Lake Ontario” and will not back down from defending the shared waterway.
Canada Minister Mélanie Joly hits back at Donald Trump over his plan to rename Lake Ontario
The minister’s fighting response came after Trump escalated a long-running rhetorical battle with Ottawa. The president posted on Truth Social that his administration was giving “serious consideration” to renaming the lake to “Lake America,” a move echoing his 2025 executive order that renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
During a Tuesday press conference, Joly framed Lake Ontario as foundational to Canadian identity rather than a bargaining chip. “We’re proud of our Great Lakes,” she said. “We’ve navigated the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, for thousands of years, and it was part of a foundation of our country. And we’ll just stand up for what we have.” She then dismissed the president’s posturing as a distraction. “We’ll just be smart, and we’ll be strategic, and we’ll fight back,” Joly said, drawing applause from the room.
Recently, Ontario Premier Doug Ford also rejected the renaming threat. Ford called it a “lot of rhetoric” and stressed his duty to protect Canadian sovereignty. “When President Trump wants to attack our sovereignty and attack our businesses and people in Ontario, I can’t roll over,” he said. Ford admitted tempers had flared during recent exchanges but urged both sides to cool down. “Let’s negotiate a fair deal because it’s hurting the U.S. It’s hurting Canada,” he added.
The lake sits on the border between Ontario and New York, making it a convenient symbol in the broader fight over tariffs and trade. That fight escalated over the weekend when Prime Minister Mark Carney removed Canadian negotiators from talks with Washington. The U.S. then imposed new tariffs on several Canadian goods. Carney announced retaliatory tariffs starting September 8, promising to match the American measures dollar for dollar.
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.
