DAYS AFTER US President Donald Trump signed an order renaming Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America’, a Canadian premier has erected a huge sign on the shores of the lake to ridicule the brazen move.

The sign reads “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” and stands roughly two storeys high. The message is repeated in French.

Wearing a Team Canada football shirt, Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled the sign near Grimsby, Ontario, and posed for photographs.

It’s Lake Ontario, now and always. pic.twitter.com/KNahtPAMeJ

— Doug Ford (@fordnation) August 29, 2026

Trump’s move came amid a spiralling trade war between the neighbouring countries. 

On Tuesday, Canada announced retaliatory tariffs on about $20bn (€17.15 billion) worth of American goods after the Trump administration imposed 50% tariffs over the weekend on Canadian goods following the collapse of trade negotiations.

Trump intensified the confrontation at the time by saying the US was giving “serious consideration” to renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America”.

The lake, which is one of the five Great Lakes of North America, shares a name with the Canadian province of Ontario.

The Canada–US border spans the centre of the lake.

US President Donald Trump signs an executive order on the renaming in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. Alamy Alamy

After months of tariffs, threats to make Canada the 51st US state and personal attacks on its leaders, the reaction in Canada has mixed defiance with mockery.

Ford said Trump was trying to rename the lake because Ontario and Canada were “standing up for ourselves” and argued the name would outlast the president.

“Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario,” Ford said in a video posted on social media.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew compared Trump to an ageing rock band trying to revive an old hit.

“You know when, like, a rock band is really over the hill and you see them like in a casino playing some song from like 50 years ago, I think that’s the part of Donald Trump’s presidency we’re at now — like he thought he had a real hit, a real golden oldie, with the Gulf of Mexico,” Kinew said, referring to Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

“And he’s trying to bring back that, and he’s trying to play the hits for his base. But I think everybody here thinks it’s a little sad and it’s not his best work.”

On Thursday, Canadian prime minister said in a post on social media: ”

We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms.

“Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always.”

The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big”.

The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.…

— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) August 27, 2026

The mockery was not limited to politicians. Canadian historian Robert Bothwell was even more scathing.

“The greatest country on earth takes this moron seriously?” Bothwell said.

But Bothwell said the dispute was more serious than the jokes, arguing Trump’s broader aim was “to subordinate Canada and at best make it a colony, at worst absorb it into the United States”.

Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, said Trump “would like Canada to act like a vassal state, but it refuses to do so. That irritates him”.

Trump continued promoting the new name on Saturday, reposting a meme showing Canada geese with Trump-like blond hair firing rifles as they “protected” Lake America.

Trump has repeatedly used maps to make political points. A “Gulf of America” map was displayed for a time beside the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, and Trump has posted images depicting Canada as part of the United States or as the 51st state.

A map featuring the words Gulf of America is seen in the Oval Office during an event with President Donald Trump at the White House in February 2025. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The name Lake Ontario comes from the Huron Indigenous people’s word “oniatarí:io,” which means “lake of shining waters.”

The Canadian province of Ontario, founded in 1867, took its name from the lake.

With reporting by PA