Trump renames Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America’

• US President Donald Trump renamed Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America’ on August 27.

• Trump signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to update the lake’s name in the US geographic naming service. 

• Lake Ontario borders the Canadian province of Ontario and the US state of New York.

• Trump’s order on Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes of North America, applies to US federal usage of the lake, and does not govern what Canada, international bodies or other organisations call the lake.

• The move comes after trade talks between the US and Canada collapsed with each side blaming the other for derailing three days of intensive negotiations.

• Trump ordered 50 per cent tariffs on $20 billion in Canadian goods after trade talks collapsed.

Great Lakes system in the US

• The Great Lakes system includes five large lakes, one small lake, four connecting channels, and the St. Lawrence Seaway. 

• The large lakes are Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. 

• They hold about 90 per cent of the freshwater in the US and approximately 20 per cent of the world's freshwater supply. 

• Forty million residents of the US and Canada depend on this system for clean drinking water.

• The lakes are critical components of the regional economies in both the US and Canada. 

• They are important sources of drinking water, transportation, and irrigation, and provide recreational opportunities such as boating, fishing, hunting, and bird watching, as well as vital habitat to a myriad of wildlife species

• The lakes directly generate more than 1.5 million jobs and $60 billion in wages annually.

• The United States has invested nearly $4 billion in protecting the Great Lakes freshwater ecosystem in the last decade.