Lake Ontario's name comes from the Huron Indigenous people's word 'oniatarío', which means “lake of shining waters,” and it predates European settlement in the region. The province, founded in 1867, took its name from the lake. The province has two prominent cities -- Canada's capital Ottawa and Toronto. With his trade war with Canada intensifying, US President Donald Trump floated the idea of renaming Lake Ontario to become “Lake America.” America's northern neighbours quickly panned the idea.
The United States of America and Canada, which share borders along multiple Great Lakes, including Lake Ontario, are locked in an extended trade dispute, with the Trump administration imposing 50 per cent tariffs on USD 20 billion worth of Canadian goods over the weekend after talks between the countries broke down. That ratcheted up lower tariffs that Trump imposed in 2025, shortly after his second presidency began. Trump has also threatened new 50 per cent tariffs on Canadian vehicles, auto parts and steel.
Importance of Lake Ontario
The official US-Canada border stretches across the water between Lake Ontario's northern and southern shores. The body of water forms much of New York State's coastline and separates Buffalo from Toronto, the capital of the province of Ontario. Toronto is Canada's most populous city and Ontario its most populous province.
Ontario is also the single largest export destination for more than a dozen US states.
The International Hydrographic Organisation -- of which both the United States and Canada are members -- works to ensure that the world's seas, oceans and navigable waters are surveyed and charted uniformly, and also names some of them. But there is no single international body that determines names of international bodies of water.
Canada and Mexico
Canada and Mexico are the largest US trading partners but have drawn Trump's ire throughout his second presidency on trade, immigration and crime. He has called for Canada to become the 51st state, alternating between joking tones and seemingly serious assertions that Carney and other Canadians have rejected and mocked.
On the day of his second inauguration, Trump fulfilled one of his 2024 campaign promises with an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The body of water forms a shared border between Mexico and the US.
Mexico does not recognise the change, nor do many other countries and international bodies.
In 2015, President Barack Obama changed the name of Alaska's Mount McKinley, named for the 25th US president, to Denali, its historical name given by Alaska Natives as well as the preference of many Alaska residents. Trump, the same day he ordered the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed, returned McKinley's name to the Alaska mountain to honour “a great president.”
That back-and-forth in Alaska could be a preview for a certain ancient lake. Said Wiseman of Trump, “He's not going to be in the presidency forever.”
