Canada installs large Lake Ontario sign in latest jab at US

What the report says

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has unveiled a large sign on Canada’s shoreline reading “Lake Ontario. Now and Always.” The display is a pointed response to US President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to rename the shared body of water “Lake America,” according to BBC World News.

BBC reports that Ford presented the sign after Trump also shared AI-generated social media videos mocking the lake’s name. Ford said the move was meant to remind people that the waterway has long been called Lake Ontario and will continue to be known by that name. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has also publicly rejected the US renaming effort.

The dispute comes amid a broader trade and political clash between the two countries. BBC says talks broke down before the latest tariff measures, with the US imposing new 50% tariffs on $20bn in Canadian goods and Ottawa planning matching counter-tariffs. While Trump can direct how the US government labels geographic features, other countries are not bound by that decision.

Lake Ontario is one of the Great Lakes and borders Ontario and New York. The BBC notes that the naming row echoes an earlier dispute over the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump renamed the Gulf of America in a separate order.