According to Reuters reporting on September 1st local time, latest polls show that most Americans oppose President Trump’s actions of imposing new tariffs on Canadian goods and renaming Lake Ontario.
According to a three-day poll conducted by Reuters/Ipsos and concluded on August 30, Americans are cautious about disputes with Canada. Canada has been a major trading partner for the United States for decades, but tensions have risen due to the breakdown of trade negotiations between the two countries and Trump’s last week’s decision to raise tariffs on Canadian goods.
In the respondents, only 20% of people support increasing tariffs on Canadian goods. 57% of respondents opposed it, while 21% expressed no opinion. About one-fifth of the respondents said they had not heard about this development.
Since Trump launched war against Iran in February this year, soaring gasoline prices have put economic pressure on American families. In the United States, voters consider the cost of living to be the top issue that determines their voting intentions in the mid-term elections on November 3rd.
In the upcoming election, Trump's Republican allies face a challenge of defending their slim majority in Congress. Over the past few weeks, Trump's support rate has remained hovering at its lowest point in his political career.
This trade conflict between the United States and Canada saw a dramatic turn last week: On August 27th, Trump renamed Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes in North America, "Lake America." This naming decision applies only to the way the lake is referred to at the federal level in the United States, and does not bind Canada, international organizations, or other entities in referring to the lake.
Trump renamed Lake Ontario, and Google Maps labels it as "Lake of America". IC photo
Trump often jokes about Canada, threatening to annex this long-time ally and turn it into the 51st state of the United States. He also ordered in January 2025, when he began his second term, to rename the Gulf of Mexico as "Gulf of America".
In a poll conducted by Reuters/IPPS, only 14% of Americans expressed support for changing the name of Lake Ontario—a name that has been used for over 400 years. As many as 63% of respondents opposed the change, while the rest were undecided or did not respond.
