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The official U.S.-Canada border stretches across the water between Lake Ontario\u2019s northern and southern shores. The body of water forms much of New York State\u2019s coastline and separates Buffalo from Toronto, the capital of the province of Ontario. Toronto is Canada\u2019s most populous city and Ontario its most populous province. <\/p>\n
Ontario is also the single largest export destination for more than a dozen U.S. states.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing,\u201d Ontario resident Paul Butler said of Trump\u2019s policy and rhetoric. \u201cThe more you hear it, it just gets downright infuriating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who traded personal insults with Trump on Monday, dismissed the Lake Ontario threat as \u201ca lot of rhetoric\u201d and urged the two countries to resume negotiations. Ford acknowledged in a CNN interview that the dispute had \u201cgot a little personal\u201d and agreed it was time to lower the temperature, saying the trade fight was hurting both countries and that Canada and the United States should \u201cget back to the table\u201d to negotiate. <\/p>\n
Lake Ontario\u2019s name predates either country<\/p>\n
The lake\u2019s name comes from the Huron Indigenous people\u2019s word \u201coniatar\u00ed:io,\u201d which means \u201clake of shining waters,\u201d and it predates European settlement in the region. The province, founded in 1867, took its name from the lake. <\/p>\n
The International Hydrographic Organization \u2014 of which both the United States and Canada are members \u2014 works to ensure that the world\u2019s seas, oceans and navigable waters are surveyed and charted uniformly, and also names some of them. But there is no single international body that determines names of international bodies of water.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been like that for so long, so, why do we need to change it?\u201d said Nancy Minard, an Ontario resident. \u201cIt seems to work for Canada and I think probably works for the U.S., too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has at least some support for his idea on Ontario\u2019s south shoreline. <\/p>\n
\u201cI like it. Absolutely. Because I like America, and right now Canada\u2019s not treating us very nicely,\u201d said Jim Fetterhoff, a resident and fisherman in Port Ontario in upstate New York. <\/p>\n
He cited Canadian tariffs on dairy and other products. Nothing against Canadians themselves, Fetterhoff added, \u201cjust the Canadian government. I love Canadians.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has been antagonizing U.S. neighbors<\/p>\n
Canada and Mexico are the largest U.S. trading partners but have drawn Trump\u2019s ire throughout his second presidency on trade, immigration and crime. He has called for Canada to become the 51st state, alternating between joking tones and seemingly serious assertions that Carney and other Canadians have rejected and mocked. <\/p>\n
On the day of his second inauguration, Trump fulfilled one of his 2024 campaign promises with an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The body of water forms a shared border between Mexico and the U.S. <\/p>\n
Mexico does not recognize the change, nor do many other countries and international bodies. <\/p>\n
In 2015, President Barack Obama changed the name of Alaska\u2019s Mount McKinley, named for the 25th U.S. president, to Denali, its historical name given by Alaska Natives as well as the preference of many Alaska residents. Trump, the same day he ordered the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed, returned McKinley\u2019s name to the Alaska mountain to honor \u201ca great president.\u201d<\/p>\n
That back-and-forth in Alaska could be a preview for a certain ancient lake. Said Wiseman of Trump, \u201cHe\u2019s not going to be in the presidency forever.\u201d <\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
This story has been updated to correct where Ontario resident Patricia Wiseman was walking. It was the waterfront of the Detroit River, not Lake Erie. <\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Barrow reported from Atlanta. Gillies reported from Toronto. Cara Anna contributed from Lowville, New York. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINDSOR, Ontario (AP) \u2014 With his trade war with Canada intensifying, U.S. President Donald Trump floated the idea…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[56746,2616,16505,17,591,162,4079,592,57688,434,57689,13009,111,57691,4828,57687,57690,113,8156,32880,594,5996],"class_list":["post-182979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ak-state-wire","tag-alaska","tag-barack-obama","tag-canada","tag-canada-government","tag-donald-trump","tag-doug-ford","tag-general-news","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-international-trade","tag-jim-fetterhoff","tag-lake-ontario","tag-mark-carney","tag-nancy-minard","tag-new-york","tag-patricia-wiseman","tag-paul-butler","tag-politics","tag-tariffs-and-global-trade","tag-trump-hub","tag-united-states-government","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}