Lake Ontario's 4 Historic Names Anchor Bryan Adams's New Trump Song

Lake Ontario has carried many names across the centuries — Lac Saint-Louis, Lacus Ontarius, Skaniadorio, Cataraqui Lake — but Bryan Adams says it will never be called Lake America. The Canadian rock star has written a song about it, and he is not being subtle, according to The Guardian.

The track, titled "Lake Ontario," accuses President Donald Trump of "breaking the peace" between the people who live along the lake's shores, the Guardian reports. The song is part of a forthcoming album Adams has described as a "love letter" to Canada, a project that began as an invitation from a film company to write about Canada's Maritime provinces, per the Guardian.

What does Bryan Adams's new song say about Trump?

Adams's lyrics go after the president directly over the renaming order and link it to his wider political troubles that week, according to the Guardian: "But things weren't going his way in Iran / So like a baby tossing the toys from the pram … But it feels like another distraction / While the Epstein files were getting traction."

Why did Trump order Lake Ontario renamed "Lake America"?

Trump signed an executive order in August directing U.S. federal agencies to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America," the Guardian reports — a move that echoed his earlier decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico "the Gulf of America." The order further strained relations between Washington and Ottawa, according to the Guardian, which notes the move was largely met with derision in Canada, including pointed reminders that the province of Ontario is named after the lake, not the reverse.

By the numbers:

• 4 — historic names for Lake Ontario cited in Guardian reporting (Lac Saint-Louis, Lacus Ontarius, Skaniadorio, Cataraqui Lake)
• 2 — binational water features Trump has sought to rename via executive order, by Guardian's count (the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario)

What is the Iroquois name for Lake Ontario, and why does Adams invoke it?

Adams's lyrics lean on the lake's Indigenous history: "The 'lake of shining waters' is what the Iroquois called her / It's a First Nations name — not an executive order," according to the Guardian. The line draws a direct contrast between a name with centuries of Indigenous use and a 2026 White House directive.

What album is "Lake Ontario" part of?

The song sits on an upcoming Adams album that grew out of a request to write about Canada's Maritime provinces and expanded into a broader tribute to the country, the Guardian reports. Adams has framed the full project as a "love letter" to Canada rather than a protest record, even as individual tracks take direct aim at the U.S. president.

Has Trump targeted other geographic names before?

The Lake Ontario order follows Trump's earlier directive renaming the Gulf of Mexico "the Gulf of America," a decision the Guardian describes as "widely mocked." The Guardian's reporting also notes that Neil Young has separately sued Trump over unauthorized use of his song "Rockin' in the Free World" at rallies, part of a broader pattern of friction between Canadian musicians and the administration.