Trump Signs Order to Rename Lake Ontario as 'Lake America' Amid Calls for Canadians to Boycott U.S. Travel

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S.

President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on Oct.

7, 2025. —Jim Watson—Getty Images President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an ‌Executive Order instructing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to rename Lake Ontario as “ Lake America .” ​ The change is set to take effect immediately, he said.

Trump earlier in the week had floated the idea of a new moniker for Lake Ontario, which borders the Canadian ‌province ⁠of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York.

Trump signed a similar order upon returning to the White House last year, renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the " Gulf of America ." This most recent name change is the latest in a series of tit-for-tat measures amid an all-out trade war between the U.S. and Canada.

Amid escalating tensions, British Columbia’s Premier David Eby on Tuesday called on residents not to travel to America unless absolutely essential.

“I’m asking British Columbians: If you have a choice, please don’t travel to the United States.

Choose another place to do your tourism,” Eby said at a press briefing.

“If you can choose a Canadian product, instead of an American one, please choose it… by being our own best customer, we can help respond and support Canadians in every corner of this amazing country.” While Eby is leading the charge on a travel boycott from the Canadian province, other lawmakers are clamping down on their boycott of U.S. products.

“When you’re at war, you protect your own, you protect your own backyard,” said Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Wednesday.

“You don’t go down to the U.S. and buy a product.

There’s nothing that we can’t make here in Ontario, or across the country.” Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne expressed a similar sentiment earlier in the week, telling reporters: “The biggest power we have, each and every one of us, is our purchasing power.

We can choose when we go to the grocery store or to the hardware store to buy Canadian.” Has Canadian travel to the U.S. declined since Trump returned to office? Prior to Eby’s tourism plea, Canadian travel to the U.S. had shown a jump in visitors after a widely-reported decline.

In May, the number of Canadians visiting the U.S. was up by 9.9% compared to the same month a year prior, according to Statistics Canada .