Ontario Premier Doug Ford has mocked President 
Donald Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America," the latest exchange in a running feud between the two. Wearing a Team Canada soccer jersey, Ford on Saturday unveiled a sign near Grimsby, Ontario, which PBS NewsHour reported stands roughly two stories high and reads "Lake Ontario. Now and Always," with the message repeated in French. On Sunday, he said the order resembled "something out of 'Saturday Night Live,'" The Hill reported.
What does the order do? It directs U.S. federal agencies to call Lake Ontario "Lake America," though PBS NewsHour reported that Trump cannot require Canada to adopt the new name. Trump kept promoting the name on Saturday, reposting a meme of Canada geese with blond hair like his own firing rifles as they "protected" Lake America. Google Maps changed the lake's name to "Lake America" for U.S. users the same day, The Hill reported.
What is behind the feud? Ford slammed Trump's trade war with Canada, which The Hill reported placed a 50 percent tariff on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, in an interview with ABC News's "This Week." Earlier in the week, Ford told the Associated Press that Ronald Reagan would be "throwing up" over Trump's tariff policies, and Trump fired back by dismissing the remarks as "bluster" and calling Ford Prime Minister Mark Carney's "flunky." Ford said Trump was trying to rename the lake because Ontario and Canada were "standing up for ourselves," and in a video posted on social media he said: "Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario."
How have others in Canada responded? Carney rejected the move, citing the lake's Indigenous roots and a name that predates both Canadian Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence, PBS NewsHour reported. The name comes from the Huron word "oniatarí:io," meaning "lake of shining waters," and Wendat Nation Grand Chief Pierre Picard called the order an attempt to erase Indigenous history. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew likened Trump to an aging rock band trying to revive an old hit, the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, saying "it's not his best work."
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
