While President Donald Trump seems to love the renaming of Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” the rest of America isn’t as thrilled, a new poll found. The 80-year-old president, who has a penchant for needlessly renaming things such as the “Gulf of America,” has decided that the iconic Great Lake needs a rebrand — adding fuel to the fire amid his ramped-up trade war with America’s northern neighbor. Late last month, the U.S. imposed a 50 percent tariff on about $20 billion of Canadian imports, souring relations between the longtime trade partners.
The move spurred dollar-for-dollar retaliation from Ottawa, with Prime Minister Mark Carney comparing the move to armed conflict, telling reporters, “We got attacked.” The trade war intensified Thursday, when Trump issued an executive order declaring that Lake Ontario, which straddles the border between the U.S. and Canada, would now be named “Lake America.” While the declaration was immediately overwhelmingly unpopular among Canadians, it also didn’t sit right with most Americans. The vast majority — roughly 63 percent — of Americans oppose the name change, according to a new /Ipsos poll. Only 14 percent of Americans polled supported the change, while the rest either had no opinion or did not answer the question.
The new name applies solely to U.S. federal usage. Other countries, including Canada, and international organizations can continue to call the body of water Lake Ontario, which has been its name for at least 400 years. Trump’s tariffs on Canada, which cover a variety of things from hockey sticks to honey, were also unpopular among those surveyed.
Only 20 percent of those surveyed supported higher levies on Canadian goods. Meanwhile, 57 percent opposed the tariffs, and 21 percent couldn’t say where they stood. In response to Trump’s levies, Canada struck back with retaliatory tariffs on about $20 billion worth of American goods, including many everyday necessities like cheese, clothing, cosmetics and toilet paper.
The tariffs are set to take effect September 8. Trump lashed out at Ottawa over its retaliatory tariffs, saying during a press conference about renaming Lake Ontario that the “whole Canadian thing” has been “going on for decades” and “has to stop.” The president suggested that part of the reason behind his decision to rename the lake was because Ottawa hasn’t paid the U.S. They don't pay us to defend Canada, but we defend Canada, and they understand that.
As an example, we bought icebreakers. We have 11 brand new icebreakers coming in, they'd like to use the icebreakers. They don't pay for anything, and they want to be treated like a state, but they're not a state,” he said.
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