President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an Executive Order instructing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America.” The change is set to take effect immediately, he said. Trump earlier in the week had floated the idea of a new moniker for Lake Ontario, which borders the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York. Trump signed a similar order upon returning to the White House last year, renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America." This most recent name change is the latest in a series of tit-for-tat measures amid an all-out trade war between the U.S. and Canada.
Amid escalating tensions, British Columbia’s Premier David Eby on Tuesday called on residents not to travel to America unless absolutely essential. Choose another place to do your tourism,” Eby said at a press briefing. There’s nothing that we can’t make here in Ontario, or across the country.” Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne expressed a similar sentiment earlier in the week, telling reporters: “The biggest power we have, each and every one of us, is our purchasing power.
We can choose when we go to the grocery store or to the hardware store to buy Canadian.” Prior to Eby’s tourism plea, Canadian travel to the U.S. had shown a jump in visitors after a widely-reported decline. In May, the number of Canadians visiting the U.S. was up by 9.9% compared to the same month a year prior, according to Statistics Canada. In June, the number of Canadian-resident return trips from the United States increased 5.0% year over year.
The number of Americans visiting Canada was also higher, with a 6.1% rise year over year. However, in the first quarter of 2026, Canadian residents took 5.5 million trips that included an outbound visit to the United States, a year over year decline of 10.6%. Spending while visiting the U.S. by Canadians during this period was also down by 13.6%.
Figures for the start of 2026 fall in line with a trend that has seen Canadian travel to the U.S. decline since Trump returned to Office last year. Cell phone data analysis published by the University of Toronto earlier this year found a 42% year-over-year median decline in Canadian travel to U.S. metropolitan areas. The research also found that “when Canadians travel to the U.S., they are visiting fewer locations and staying for less time than they used to.” Some metro areas such as Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Panama City, Florida, saw drops in Canadian tourism of at least 60%.
In Florida, the decline in visits has persisted with an average decrease of just under 14% across the state during the first six months of 2026. Relations between the U.S. and Canada have deteriorated further since the collapse of high-stakes trade talks last week resulted in U.S. tariffs of 50% on various Canadian products going into effect on Aug. 22, with no CUSMA exception. In response, Canada has imposed retaliatory tariffs of up to 50% on certain U.S. goods.
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