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Canadian Minister of Industry, Mélanie Joly, rejected on Tuesday the threat by U.S. President Donald Trump to rename Lake Ontario, which the two countries share, as "Lake America," in a new escalation of their trade and political conflict.
"We will always call it Lake Ontario. We are proud of our Great Lakes. We have navigated them for thousands of years. They are part of the foundation of our country and we will defend what we have," declared Joly during a press conference in which the Canadian government announced retaliatory tariffs against the U.S.
"And while all these maneuvers are happening, we will act with intelligence, we will be strategic, and we will respond," she added.
Trump launched the threat this Tuesday via social media, one day after he engaged in a war of insults with the head of government of the Canadian province of Ontario, Doug Ford.
Ford, whose province is one of those most affected by the trade war unleashed by Trump, declared on Monday that the U.S. president could kiss his "ass," to which he responded that the Canadian politician was a "lackey" of Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Trump also described Ford as the "less charismatic, intelligent, and generally unimpressive" brother of the "late and great Rob Ford," who was, between 2010 and 2014, mayor of Toronto, the capital of Ontario and the country's largest city.
Doug Ford, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, replied shortly after by calling Trump a "dictator," "tyrant," "king of bankruptcies," and "loser."
Where is Lake Ontario located?
Lake Ontario is the smallest by surface area of the five Great Lakes of North America. Its waters, which border the province of Ontario and the state of New York, form part of the border between Canada and the United States.
The name comes from an Iroquoian language; the government of Ontario links it to the word "kanadario," which roughly means "sparkling water," while other indigenous sources cite "onitatario," which would translate to "beautiful lake."
Lake Ontario is of great economic and strategic importance. It receives water from Lake Erie through the Niagara River and Niagara Falls and, at its eastern end, gives rise to the Saint Lawrence River, the waterway that connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.
[Publicidad]