Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canadians know better than any executive order what to call the water on their southern border, the Toronto Star reports. After US President Trump signed an order Thursday to rebrand Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” Carney pushed back online, stressing the Indigenous Wendat origin of the lake’s name—Ontari’io means “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big”—not to mention the name’s 400-year history, which predates both countries. The province of Ontario is named after the lake, CTV News reports. “Naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario—then, now, and always,” he wrote, as Ottawa rolled out retaliatory trade measures following the collapse of negotiations last week.
The renaming move—which affects only US federal documents and mapping services—drew criticism on both sides of the border. Ontario Premier Doug Ford called it “Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world. Now and forever,” while a string of Canadian premiers labeled the decision everything from “foolishness” to the tired act of an “over-the-hill rock star.” Some US governors, including Republican Phil Scott of Vermont, urged a return to talks instead of symbolic fights. Trump, seated beside a map labeled “Lake America,” defended the step as part of dealing with a neighbor he claimed “has treated us very badly,” and mused about someday renaming the Atlantic or Pacific. He called Canadian officials “nasty people,” the CBC reports.