Letters: Pull the plug on Trump’s ‘Lake America’

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Name change ‘rightly evoked an emotional response’

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President Donald Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario to Lake America has rightly evoked an emotional response from Canadians. While “Lake America” will likely have the staying power of “Freedom Fries” — coined by Americans in 2003 when France wouldn’t support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq — it is hard to ignore the irony that Canada has been renaming its own streets, towns and geographical features for the past decade. I hope this ordeal illustrates the practical folly of changing well-established names and reboots Canadians’ pride in their history and institutions.

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Clint Stibbard, West Vancouver

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For generations, we’ve remembered the names of the Great Lakes by using the acronym HOMES: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.

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With “Lake America,” we may need a new acronym: SHAME (Superior, Huron, America, Michigan, Erie).

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A fitting one, unfortunately, for the state of Canada-U.S. trade talks.

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Adina Silberman, Bronx, N.Y.

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It could be that renaming Lake Ontario is not merely a joke or another way for President Donald Trump to insult Canada. It could be a sneaky way for him to solve America’s freshwater shortage. Canada needs to fight this name change and ensure that our water rights on the lake (of which we own 53 per cent) are not diminished.

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Morton Cohen, Toronto

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Donald Trump has now “renamed” both the Gulf of Mexico (“Gulf of America”) and Lake Ontario (“Lake America”).

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Both these two pre-Columbian place names are of Indigenous origin. “Mexico” is said to have originated in the ethnonym Mexica, which referred to the Aztecs. As for “Ontario,” it comes from the Wendat word “Oniatarí:io,” which meant “great/beautiful lake” or “lake of shining waters.” The Wendat were displaced by the Iroquois, who retained the name. “America,” on the other hand, is a place name of European origin referring to the explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

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By changing these centuries-old place names, the budding cartographer Trump is attacking not only Mexico and Canada, but also the heritage of the Indigenous peoples who inhabited the Americas long before Christopher Columbus arrived.

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Trump is also reported to be considering renaming an ocean. If he sets his sights on the Pacific Ocean, he will undoubtedly want to rename it the “Warrior Ocean.” Hasn’t he already renamed the Department of Defence the “War Department,” much to the delight of Pete Hegseth, the bellicose Secretary of War?

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If this last change is adopted, it would have the added bonus (in Trump’s eyes) of displeasing the governor of California (whose coastline stretches for more than 1,300 kilometres along the Pacific) — Gavin Newsom, his fiercest opponent.

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Sylvio Le Blanc, Montreal

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The rain does come

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Chrystia Freeland, as Justin Trudeau’s finance minister, was fully complicit in his decision to massively increase Canada’s debt. But in the end, even she could not stomach the recklessness of those budgets, the willing blindness her boss showed as he spent on pet projects and programs while killing the goose laying golden eggs, and ignoring the unavoidable catastrophe to come. It took Freeland too long to realize that when Trudeau stated that it was his understanding that budgets balance themselves, he actually believed it.

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And so in the end she left, with a letter that warned Trudeau that at decision times, it was important to remember that the storm clouds will come, that failing to save up for rainy days is an unforgivable error.

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Trudeau, a wealthy man, took it for granted that rainy days merely meant flying to sunnier destinations. The plight of the rest of us was beyond his ken. And now his successor is faced with the difficult task of looking into a bare cupboard, and trying to find ways to feed a growing crowd of jobless, hungry people during an economic war.

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One can only hope that in years to come, The Lesson of Justin Trudeau will become a mandatory course for all Canadians. No, one cannot spend oneself rich. No, budgets do not balance themselves. And no, we can’t all just board a private jet when the rain starts falling.

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Tom Curran, Consecon, Ont.

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9/11 directive another reason to defund the CBC

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The CBC may legitimately be viewed as adding value to Canada with its French language services and those provided to the northern parts of our country. That having been said, the fact that Canadian taxpayers must subsidize the national broadcaster indicates that it can’t compete commercially. That is to say that it can’t attract an audience because its programming is weak and of little interest to Canadians.

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The political bias demonstrated by the CBC over the past decades is probably one reason its audience is small. To me, the outrage over the CBC directive (rescinded after blowback) that its writers not refer to 9/11 as a “terrorist” attack is exacerbated by the fact that 9/11 was perpetrated by Islamist terrorists (which the media is largely ignoring). In a time of heightened antisemitism, ironically ignited by another Islamist terrorist attack on 10/7, government-funded agencies’ partisanship should not be in any way contributing to it.

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All the funding the CBC receives comes (grudgingly) from taxpayers, among them Maureen Basnicki, whose husband Ken died in the attack on the World Trade Center, and others who suffered personal losses, as well as those of us who have a very different point of view from that of CBC management.

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I can choose to avoid media I find offensive, thereby lessening their audience and, as a result, impacting their revenues. I do avoid the CBC, but my audience participation doesn’t matter because I still have to pay. It’s time to shut down this biased and anachronistic organization. Defund the CBC.

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John Harris, Toronto

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Canada’s got talent — why import academics?

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At a time when the United States is threatening to steamroll Canada, the Liberal foray into the world of academia is perplexing at best. Most Canadians were likely less than delighted to hear Federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly announce that her government has poached 48 senior academics from the United States as part of a $504-million international recruitment drive that taxpayers will be funding. Even though a number of this cohort are returning Canadians, one would think that surely there are sufficient homegrown, bright Canadian minds still in Canada to render it unnecessary to have to poach American talent.

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In the 1960s and 1970s, the late Carleton University professor Robin Matthews worked tirelessly in support of the Canadian Identity and advocated for the promotion of more Canadian talent in our universities. He would not be impressed by this latest Liberal sellout and lack of support for our Canadian intellectual talent.

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Bob Erwin, Ottawa

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Place TMU under provincial trusteeship if necessary

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Former Justice Mary Lou Benotto’s report on the scourge of antisemitism that plagues Toronto Metropolitan University, as disturbing as it is, comes as no surprise to anyone who has kept up to date on the goings-on at this unserious institution. Similar to its Montreal sister campus, Concordia University, it has frequently been a hotbed of student protest against whatever the prevailing social ill happens to be. (Recall the outrage against its former name of Ryerson in 2021?)

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Since October 7, 2023, the protest du jour has been directed against Jews and their ancestral homeland, Israel. The feckless administration has been unable/unwilling to address the issue through expulsion of the culprits, defunding certain student associations, and legal action, where appropriate. The “Canadian” solution … a task force to study Benotto’s recommendations, is a pathetic response to a serious moral failure on the part of those in charge.

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In spite of his erratic and sometimes outrageous behaviour, President Donald Trump had the courage to withhold funding from the worst antisemitic offenders in U.S. academia, including the “elite” Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and Johns Hopkins universities. Ontario Premier Doug Ford needs to take similar action, and, if necessary, place this shameful institution under provincial trusteeship. As it currently stands, taxpayer money is being squandered on the altar of unbridled hatred.

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Susan Silverman, Toronto

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‘Running out of time’ in fight against antisemitism

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Both Ari Blaff and Beryl Wajsman were correct in their assessments of the plight of the Jewish community in Canada, although the arguments were framed differently.

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Blaff was writing in context of Canada failing economically as well as morally, and Wajsman seemed to boil down the issue to that of “antisemitism,” while imploring the Jewish community to fight on.

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The question to be asked is, how do we expect all this to end? We are fighting against an evil, irrational fury that cannot be defeated by logic or reason. Official Canada is proving to be completely impotent against the external malevolent forces that are exporting their treachery to Canadian institutions and culture. The Liberal government, now seemingly set to rule for the foreseeable future, can reasonably be called complicit in the assault on the Jewish community. Insidious forces have taken over much of the media, academia, unions, and governments at municipal and provincial levels. The NDP and other fringe parties and candidates are basing much of their desperate platforms on foreign policy propaganda and lies. Public schools seem more interested in indoctrination and political ideology than education. Can the Jewish community trust government agencies for fair treatment?

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Ari Blaff’s recommendation of leaving Canada is quite reasonable. Historically, Jews have left many countries, and the decision has always proven to be correct. Beryl Wajsman’s advice to stay is hopeful and stoic, but in the end they are both small steps in a battle against a gargantuan enemy that is based in hatred, deceit, and ignorance.

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Will a sudden, miraculous government decree magically eliminate the rot that exists in the institutions perpetuating the hatred against Jews? This hostility is now decades, if not generations away from being resolved. The community at large must recognize this assault on western civilization. We are running out of time; indeed, the violence has already started, and the conflict will not conclude peacefully.

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Perry Medicoff (ex-pat), Lisbon, Portugal

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