Talk:Lake Ontario

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This article is written in Canadian English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, centre, travelled, realize, analyze) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

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Frequently asked questions

Q1: Can the article name or lead be changed to mention the name Lake America?

A1: No, there is a moratorium on changing the name of this article to Lake America, or adding the name Lake America to the lead, per this discussion. The moratorium is set to expire on August 28, 2027.

Q2: Why hasn't Wikipedia changed the article name from Lake Ontario to Lake America?

A2: Wikipedia uses common names over official names. Per the article title policy, names that are commonly used by independent, reliable sources to refer to the subject of the article should be used when possible, and there is no indication that "Lake Ontario" has ceased or will cease to be the overwhelmingly most common name for the lake.

Q3: Why hasn't Wikipedia added Lake America to the lead as an alternative name?

A3: There is consensus that the name "Lake America" is an insignificant alternative name with little to no common usage. To include it in the lead would be giving the name undue weight. See also WP:TRUMPCRUFT.

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This article has been mentioned by multiple media organizations:

Matt Novak (August 28, 2026). "MAGA Trolls Obsessed With Renaming Lake Ontario on Wikipedia After Trump's Declaration". Gizmodo. Retrieved August 28, 2026. The majority of people clearly thought it was warranted to mention Trump's actions but not to otherwise radically alter the article. At the time of this writing, a section called "Name" explained both the history of the name Ontario as well as Trump's executive order but didn't discuss the legality of such a change.
Owen Dahlkamp (September 2, 2026). "Trump's Lake America push forces tech to pick a side". Politico. Retrieved September 4, 2026. Other platforms will soon follow, a senior administration official told POLITICO on Tuesday. "We got Lake America changed on Google Maps, and many other maps are changing in a couple days. And Wikipedia is going to change as well," said the official, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly.

Yet another edit request

Latest comment: 25 days ago15 comments8 people in discussion

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

In the Name section, I suggest piping the wikilink for Lake Ontario naming dispute to [[Lake Ontario naming dispute|Executive Order 14422]] because the order has been published in the Federal Register. I am also open to suggestions for alternate wordings. SuperPianoMan9167 (talk) 19:46, 5 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Oppose, that is an WP:EASTEREGG link, and people would expect it to be a page on the executive order. Canterbury Tail talk 00:00, 6 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

people would expect it to be a page on the executive order. Exactly, which is why it's strange that the current link, which shows "an executive order", doesn't lead to a page on the executive order, but rather a page on the dispute in general, making the current link an easter egg link. Linking directly to the section of that article about the executive order seems more logical IMO; perhaps a {{further}} template could be added as well. SuperPianoMan9167 (talk) 00:09, 6 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

The reason I didn't use a hatnote was because it could have presented WP:DUE issues, since only one sentence of that section (rather than the whole sections) is related to the dispute. I'm open to suggestions, however. – Epicgenius (talk) 00:42, 6 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

What about something like this?

+

Amidst the trade war with Canada and Mexico, United States president Donald Trump signed an executive order in August 2026 to rename the lake to Lake America.

That should (hopefully) take care of the EGG concerns, and the DUE concerns could be addressed by adding something like

+

The name was rejected by Canadian officials, including prime minister Mark Carney who said that the name Lake Ontario preceded the formation of both countries.^[1]

Am less sure about this part, but maybe also include something like

While the United States can decide it recognises shared landmarks, there are no recognised international bodies that decide on the hydronyms of shared lakes, and other countries are do not need to follow.^[1]

Stressing that I'm less sure about that last part, not sure if it is giving UNDUE emphasis or if it would be providing context that the reader would find on the naming dispute article. ‑‑gurkubondinn 13:47, 6 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

All we need to do (at most) is say this only applies (legally) to US federal agencies. Slatersteven (talk) 13:50, 6 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

I'm firmly opposed to getting into detail about who approves and who doesn't, or who it's applied to. That presents a maintenance problem in chasing new developments in the news, when the article is about the lake itself, not the naming. Other articles are suited for that kind of detail. I would still like to see "an executive order in August 2026 to rename the lake to Lake America" replaced with the more precise "an executive order in August 2026 directing federal agencies to refer to it as 'Lake America'". _signed,Willondon (talk) 14:47, 6 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Would say this belongs on the naming dispute article. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 11:53, 7 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

@Gurkubondinn, just FYI, there is a second proposal above that proposes retargeting the "executive order" text somewhere else. – Epicgenius (talk) 12:48, 7 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Yeah that also looks like a decent solution to me. This is just what I came up with, I don't have any strong opinions either way other than feeling like the current version was too much of an EGG link. ‑‑gurkubondinn 12:54, 7 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Support, as per WP:NPOV. This works to remove the USA-centric bias that currently exists in the article section. -- Rob Kelk 15:18, 7 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Done, with a couple of modifications to the wording. Epicgenius (talk) 23:14, 7 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Also made this edit to more-or-less conform to how the lead of Lake Ontario naming dispute actually describes the dispute. – Epicgenius (talk) 23:17, 7 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

What do you think of this relatively minor change?

Not something that I very strong feelings about either, just makes the link text a little bit more specific. ‑‑gurkubondinn 23:24, 7 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Seems reasonable, I've done this too. – Epicgenius (talk) 00:22, 8 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

References

1 2 Murphy, Jessica (28 August 2026). "Trump signs order to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America". BBC News. Archived from the original on 3 September 2026. Retrieved 6 September 2026.

"Lake America" listed at Redirects for discussion

Latest comment: 25 days ago1 comment1 person in discussion

The redirect Lake America has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2026 September 8 § Lake America until a consensus is reached. –CopperyMarrow15 (talk · edits) 01:30, 8 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Protected edit request 9 September 2026

Latest comment: 22 days ago5 comments5 people in discussion

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Change link to trade war from 2025–2026 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico to 2025–2026 United States trade war with Canada. The new article is split out from the other one.

Cyrobyte (talk) 22:00, 9 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Done Epicgenius (talk) 14:12, 10 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Word choice question: Does CanE prefer amidst over amid? MOS doesn't specify a CanE dictionary to consult. Mapsax (talk) 02:17, 11 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Either works. I have a preference for amidst, but that's just a personal preference. Mr Serjeant Buzfuz (talk) 02:24, 11 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Amid is more common in modern en-CA, with amidst being more archaic. Both are correct though, and I wouldn't correct one to the other. Canterbury Tail talk 02:25, 11 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

[BBC-1] 1 2 Murphy, Jessica (28 August 2026). "Trump signs order to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America". BBC News. Archived from the original on 3 September 2026. Retrieved 6 September 2026.

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Talk:Lake Ontario

Yet another edit request

"Lake America" listed at Redirects for discussion

Protected edit request 9 September 2026