Toronto had a message for Donald Trump this weekend, and thousands of concertgoers helped deliver it: It’s Lake Ontario.<\/p>\n
At separate shows held in the city, Canadian rockers Blue Rodeo and British heavy-metal legends Iron Maiden both took aim at the U.S. president’s controversial attempt to rename the Great Lake.<\/p>\n
And Blue Rodeo had about 16,000 people helping make the point.<\/p>\n
‘Full authority and ownership’: Blue Rodeo gets thousands shouting ‘Lake Ontario’<\/p>\n
During the band’s show at Toronto’s RBC Amphitheatre on Saturday, frontman Greg Keelor looked out toward the water and asked the crowd to sing the words “Lake Ontario” with “full authority and ownership.”<\/p>\n
The crowd did exactly that.<\/p>\n
Thousands of fans shouted the lake’s name as a map labelled “Lake Ontario” appeared behind the band, with the real thing stretching out beyond the venue.<\/p>\n
Keelor then handed the microphone to bandmate Jim Cuddy, who offered a blunt assessment of the whole situation.<\/p>\n
“We are who we are, right?” Cuddy said, before adding an expletive aimed at the idea of telling Canadians what to call their own lake.<\/p>\n
The moment came just days after Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. government to refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America.”<\/p>\n
Iron Maiden gets in on the ‘Lake Ontario’ message<\/p>\n
Blue Rodeo wasn’t the only band to have some fun with the name change.<\/p>\n
Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson also got a reaction from a Toronto crowd during the band’s show at Scotiabank Arena Saturday and Sunday night.<\/p>\n
Dickinson joked about the band’s journey to the city, referring to having crossed the “Lake of Ontario.”<\/p>\n
The wording was enough to get a cheer from the crowd \u2014 another little jab at a name change that has quickly become a source of Canadian frustration, mockery and memes.<\/p>\n
So, why is Trump calling it ‘Lake America?’<\/p>\n