Debbie Dingell plans to introduce the Hands Off Our Great Lakes Act today to block Donald Trump’s order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America. The House Democrat said the fight is about more than a map label, pointing to the way the change is already reaching US users through Google Maps.
Trump signed the executive order on Thursday and said federal agencies were directed to use the new name on US maps, documents and databases. Google Maps has already changed the lake’s name for US users, putting the order into effect in the place many readers will first notice it.
Debbie Dingell and St Clair
Dingell said she had gathered more than 100 signatures from fellow House Democrats in a letter to the president. She told Politico, “People do not understand how intertwined our two countries are.”
She added, “And this is insane, this naming Lake Ontario ‘Lake America.’” Dingell also tied the dispute to where she grew up: “I grew up in a small town called St Clair, and when I got up and looked out my bedroom window every day, I didn’t see America. I saw Canada.”
She said, “We lived that close. Canada was as close to us as [the Cannon House Office Building] is to the Capitol.”
Google Maps for US
The practical effect for US users is already visible because Google Maps has adopted Lake America for them. Trump said, “We have a gulf and we have a lake – now all we need is an ocean. Maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific.”
He added, “Maybe we’ll change them both.” On Sunday, Trump also posted overnight on Truth Social and said NBC’s Kristen Welker should face “rebuke or punishment” from the FCC.
The next step is Dingell’s bill introduction today, which puts House Democrats in a position to turn their opposition into legislation. If the Hands Off Our Great Lakes Act advances, the dispute moves from a presidential order and a map change into the House process that would decide whether the renaming can stand.
