{"id":7230,"date":"2026-09-13T19:17:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T19:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=7230"},"modified":"2026-09-13T19:17:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T19:17:22","slug":"trump-signs-order-renaming-lake-ontario-to-lake-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2026\/09\/13\/trump-signs-order-renaming-lake-ontario-to-lake-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump signs order renaming Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-renaming-lake-ontario-65bbd47925365ffd5d9522cf4b2e4bc8<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article talks about President Trump signing an executive order that directs the Interior Department to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America in the United States geographic naming service. Trump said that the change was official and effective immediately, although the order itself says the change should happen within 30 days. This comes after the United States placed 50% tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods once negotiations failed. Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the change and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston called it “real foolishness”. No international body governs the naming of shared waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering that no international body governs the naming of shared waters, it is likely that the order will change American maps and nothing else. Trump controls what United States databases record but he cannot force Canada to accept the name, so the order costs nothing and cannot be blocked. I believe this happened because the tariff negotiations collapsed a week earlier and a symbolic move gives the appearance of a win when there is no real leverage left. The lasting effect will likely not be on maps but on how willing Canada is to negotiate in good faith going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three major players are the United States government, Canada’s federal government and the provincial premiers. The United States should implement the order quietly and let it fade because pushing mapmakers and platforms to adopt the name would widen a fight it cannot win. Canada’s government is likely to keep refusing the name while avoiding escalation, since treating the order seriously would turn a symbolic act into a diplomatic problem. The provincial premiers will likely continue responding with mockery, as Houston did, because it costs nothing and denies the order any seriousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article connects to sovereignty because Lake Ontario is shared between two countries, so neither one can decide its name alone. Trump has full authority inside the United States and none outside of it, which shows where sovereignty stops. It also connects to IGOs because there is no international organization that governs the naming of shared waters, so there is no body that can settle the disagreement between the two countries. Without an international organization to decide, the name that survives will likely be the one that most people and governments continue to use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-renaming-lake-ontario-65bbd47925365ffd5d9522cf4b2e4bc8 The article talks about President Trump signing an executive order that directs the Interior Department to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America in the United States geographic naming service. Trump said that the change was official and effective immediately, although the order itself says the change should happen within 30 days. This comes after the United States placed 50%… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7231,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230\/revisions\/7231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}