Prime Minister Mark Carney responded to U.S. President Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America, saying the body of water will always keep its original name.
Carney said in a statement on Aug. 27 that the lake’s name is more than 400 years old and comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which means “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.” He added that the lake’s name therefore predates both the Confederation of Canada and the signing of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.
“We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms,” Carney said. “Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always.”…