BRAMPTON, Ontario (CNN) – Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said Canadians will continue calling the easternmost of the Great Lakes Lake Ontario, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to change the lake’s name to “Lake America.”
“We’re still gonna call it Lake Ontario. I think many of you will still call it Lake Ontario. And the only person who’s gonna have a, a trouble with what to call it is, is your president,” said Brown. “The whole notion is a bit preposterous, and just like if our prime minister wanted to rename the Mississippi, you’d probably get a truckload of it. It’s having the same reaction in Canada.”
Trump said his name change for one of the five Great Lakes is “effective immediately.”
The lake is bordered by Canada’s Ontario province to the north and west, and New York state to the south and east. Canada’s most populous city, Toronto, is on the lake’s Canadian shore.
Trump’s renaming action comes amid renewed bad blood between the U.S. and Canada over trade matters. The president on Thursday took aim at Canada, saying their officials have treated the U.S. “very badly.”
Canadian officials earlier took the stance that they would ignore any action by Trump to rename the lake.
President Trump took a similar action with the Gulf of Mexico. Early in 2025, the Board of Geographic Names formally changed the body of water’s name to Gulf of America; however, Mexico and the rest of the international community continue to refer to it as the Gulf of Mexico.
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