Ontario Premier Doug Ford has unveiled a brand new – and really blue – response to United States President Donald Trump’s controversial order renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America”.
On Saturday, Ford recorded a video of himself alongside the lake’s shore close to Hamilton, Ontario, the place he revealed a baby-blue, billboard-sized signal that reads “Lake Ontario” in massive white letters.
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Beneath, a subheading underscores Ford’s message in regards to the title: “Now and At all times.” The message can be repeated in French, Canada’s second official language.
Ford, who has made a behavior of needling the US president, defined that the signal was erected to reaffirm the Nice Lake’s title “in case President Trump — or anybody else — forgets”.
“Lengthy earlier than President Trump, this lake was known as Lake Ontario,” Ford stated in his social media video. “And lengthy after President Trump is gone, it is going to nonetheless be known as Lake Ontario.”
The White Home didn’t reply to Al Jazeera’s request for remark.
With Canada and the US embroiled in a spiralling commerce warfare, Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that modified how the US federal authorities would seek advice from the physique of water.
The order, nonetheless, drew pushback from allies and critics alike. Vermont Governor Phil Scott, a fellow Republican, called the transfer “petty and disappointing”, and a number of other politicians urged Trump to return to the negotiating desk, relatively than antagonise Canada, a longtime ally.
Canada is ranked as one of many US’s high two buying and selling companions, and as of 2024, it’s the largest vacation spot for US exports.
The commerce tensions, nonetheless, have led to a well-liked backlash in Canada, with boycotts of US items and bans in a number of provinces in opposition to US liquor.
Ford, a right-wing populist, has emerged as a vocal proponent of Canadian retaliatory actions. Since Trump took workplace for a second time period in 2025, he has known as for Canada to cede its sovereignty and turn into a US state, and has issued a number of waves of tariffs in opposition to the northern nation.
Ford’s “Lake Ontario” signal marks the premier’s newest salvo in his ongoing feud with Trump.
Earlier this week, Ford escalated his assaults in opposition to Trump after trade negotiations between the 2 nations fell aside, leading to US tariffs of fifty p.c on $20bn price of Canadian items.
“He can kiss my a** so far as I’m involved. We’re going to go at him full steam,” Ford stated about Trump throughout a Monday interview on a Toronto radio present.
Trump fired back on his Fact Social platform by mocking Ford as “much less charismatic, clever, and total unimpressive” in contrast together with his late brother, the late Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.
“Somebody ought to get these clowns to ‘fall in line’ or, the results for Canada might be far WORSE,” Trump added.
Saturday’s billboard just isn’t the primary stunt Ford has undertaken to face up in opposition to Trump, both. A few of these actions have had worldwide penalties.
Final yr, Ford’s authorities spent $75m on an anti-tariff commercial that includes the voice of former US President Ronald Reagan, which aired within the US.
“Over the long term, such commerce boundaries harm each American employee and client,” Reagan could be heard saying within the message.
The US and Canada have been within the midst of commerce negotiations on the time, and Trump cancelled the talks in protest in opposition to the commercial. Some members of the Trump administration in contrast the promoting marketing campaign with election interference, because the commercials aired earlier than 2025’s off-year races.
Ford finally pulled the commercial from the airwaves in October, saying he had achieved his purpose “to provoke a dialog” about “the influence of tariffs on employees and companies”.
Since 2018, Ford has led Ontario as its provincial head of presidency. The province is taken into account the centre of Canada’s automotive manufacturing business, and its factories are tightly built-in with US automobile producers throughout the border.
A outstanding conservative and longtime chief in Toronto, Ford previously drew comparisons with Trump. His entry into provincial politics coincided with Trump’s first time period as president.
Early on, a few of Ford’s supporters rallied across the tagline “Make Ontario Nice Once more”, a play on Trump’s “Make America Nice Once more” marketing campaign slogan. The phrase, in flip, had been popularised throughout Reagan’s 1980 run for president.
However Ford has rejected any comparisons with the US president, saying he and his household have been concerned in politics lengthy earlier than Trump.
