Trump eyes renaming Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’ as Canada trade war deepens

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he is considering changing the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” as the trade war between the United States and Canada intensifies.

Such a change would be reminiscent of the Republican president’s unilateral action last year by executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

The US and Canada are locked in a trade dispute, with Canada expected on Tuesday to announce retaliatory measures after the Trump administration enacted 50 per cent tariffs on US$20 billion of Canadian goods over the weekend after talks between the countries broke down.

“The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer,” Trump said on Tuesday on social media.

Ontario is Canada’s most populous province and is home to the country’s automobile industry.

Canada and the US share one of the world’s largest trading relationships, with deeply integrated supply chains across autos, energy, agriculture and manufacturing, making a prolonged trade fight potentially costly for businesses and workers on both sides of the border.

Prime Minister Mark Carney cast doubt on the US’ dependability, saying Canada was finding reliable partners “everywhere in the world, except in the United States. Except in the United States. And Russia”.