Lake Ontario or Lake America? The Politics of a Name

Yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to replace “Lake Ontario” with “Lake America” in federal maps, contracts, documents, and communications within 30 days. The order can’t force Canada, international organizations, private mapmakers, state governments, or ordinary people to follow along. It…

Hoekstra & the Strains in U.S.–Canada Relations

The diplomatic temperature between the United States and Canada was already running warm before a growing number of Canadians decided that Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador in Ottawa, should be shown the door. An official House of Commons petition, opened July 21 and sponsored by Green Party MP Elizabeth May, has collected more than 105,000…

Trump’s New Canada Tariffs and the Debate Over Fair Trade

The latest chapter in the increasingly tense U.S.-Canada relationship involves trade barriers, dairy quotas, provincial liquor bans, automobile policy, and, hovering strangely in the background, wildfire smoke. President Trump has signed three proclamations imposing additional 50 percent tariffs on a range of Canadian imports beginning August 19. The duties will affect nearly $20 billion in…

Canada Blinks First

Earlier today, just hours before Canada was set to slap a controversial 3% Digital Services Tax (DST) on American tech giants, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s administration hit the emergency brakes. And the reason couldn’t be clearer: President Trump, true to form, laid down the law. He froze all trade negotiations and threatened swift retaliatory tariffs,…