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The mayor of a New York State city on the shore of Lake Ontario has said his community is taking the lake’s renaming “very personally” and will not be using the new “Lake America” name.
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Robert Corradino is a Republican and has been mayor of Oswego, in the Republican stronghold of Oswego County, since January 2024.
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Despite the area’s political allegiance, he says his community is “trying to understand why a name that has endured for centuries would suddenly be changed” when there is “no practical, historical, or cultural need to change it.”
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In an interview with National Post, Corradino said: “We can disagree with the current administration’s take about renaming Lake Ontario and still support some of its other initiatives. But we’re taking the renaming of the lake very personally in Oswego.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America” in U.S. government records and maps on Aug. 27.
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The change has since been adopted by both Google and Apple Maps for users in the U.S., but Corradino has said that Oswego does not support the renaming, and won’t be altering any signage, tourism materials or official communications to reflect the new name.
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“The lake provides so much for our community as well as our identity,” Corradino said, citing the economic boost from charter boats and cruise ships as well as “beautiful sunsets.”
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“Lake Ontario is in the DNA of Osweganians,” he said, adding, “Everything that we are emanates from the lake.”
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The mayor shared that the souring relationship between Canada and the U.S., which re-escalated following the breakdown of trade negotiations last month, has had a negative impact on Oswego’s tourism industry.
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“Our tourism from Canada is down substantially. We have stores, we have museums that depend on tourism, and Canadians are a big part of our tourism business,” he said.
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It’s a trend that has been seen across the U.S., with recent data from Statistics Canada revealing that Canadian travel to the United States dropped by 10.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025.
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Speaking about the direction he’d like to see Canada-U.S. relations take going forward, Corradino added: “I would hope that our two countries, because of our long-standing relationship, could sit down in a conference room and discuss issues calmly and professionally, and work these differences out without changing the name of the lake.”
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His comments come after Prime Minister Mark Carney rebuffed U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s recent claim that Canada pulled out of trade talks with the U.S. due to political reasons.
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Meanwhile, other politicians in the U.S. have also condemned Trump’s executive order, including former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who simply wrote, “It’s Lake Ontario,” in a post on X, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said, “The American people don’t want to rename Lake Ontario Lake America.”