Ontario Premier Doug Ford Unveils ‘Lake Ontario’ Sign

Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Aug. 29 unveiled a “Lake Ontario” sign by the lake at Fifty Point Conservation Area in Hamilton in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the lake “Lake America.”

Meanwhile, on the same day, Trump shared apparently AI-generated videos on his Truth Social accounts focused on the lake, with one video showing him replacing a sign reading “Lake Ontario” with one reading “Lake America,” and another video showing armed “Donald Ducks” walking by the lake.

As he unveiled the new sign, Ford said that the lake was named “Lake Ontario” long before Trump was in office and would continue to be named such after Trump’s departure from office, he said.

Below the words “Lake Ontario,” the sign reads “Now and always” in both English and French.

Prime Minister Mark Carney responded to Trump’s renaming by posting about the etymology of the word “Ontario,” which he said was from the language of the Wendat Nation—historically called the Huron by the French—and means “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.”

In phrasing similar to that used by Ford, Carney said that the name was older than the founding of both Canada and the United States, and that the name would remain “now and always.”

After signing the executive order, Trump said Canada has been “ripping us off for a long time on trade,” and that it wants to be treated like a state, but it’s “not a state.”

“Even the military, you know, we defend Canada for nothing. We don’t get anything,” he said.

Trump first suggested renaming the lake amid an exchange of barbs between Ford and Trump related to the two countries’ failure to reach a trade agreement last week.

During a live radio interview with Newstalk 1010 on Aug. 24, Ford responded to a threat from Trump to raise tariffs to 50 percent on Canadian automobiles and steel by insulting Trump and criticizing him with profane language.

Trump responded later the same day on his Truth Social platform with his own insults directed at Ford.

The U.S. Department of the Interior has ordered the Geographic Names Information System to reflect the new name ordered by Trump, with U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum saying, “Make the Great Lakes Great Again!”