We all learned a new word from Mark Carney last week when he spoke of Donald Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario.
It was the word hydronyms, which is the naming of bodies of water.
“We know that America is changing,” Carney said.
“Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms,” the prime minister continued. “Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario—then, now and always.”
“The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big,’” Carney wrote. Of course, Donald Trump would never have understood the word hydronyms, nor the history of the naming of Lake Ontario.
But his presidential order was passed on to Sundar Pichai, the billionaire of Alphabet and owner of Google and to Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple. As good toadies, both Google and Apple changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America for U.S. subscribers. For the rest of the world, the lake remains Lake Ontario.
In the United States, all Democratic candidates are running against “The Donald” and the changes he has made in their lives. The three byelections held in Canada on Monday were also asking Canadians to choose between Mark Carney, who is battling for Canada, or another party. It was a clean sweep, expanding the Liberal majority. In the U.S., those Democratic candidates are hoping for similar results.
Yet as district residents we too can play a vital role in our trade war with the United States. At coffee on Monday morning, several persons who regularly travel to the Falls for activities and shopping declared that their trips would cease for the next several months. Even groups who have traditionally supported the Minnesota Vikings or Green Bay Packers are choosing to spend their time and funds supporting the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Canadian Football.
Our local grocery store is owned by a Nova Scotia-based company called Empire Company Ltd. The large corporation is attempting to stock more Canadian products. We can do better shopping at independently owned grocery stores. We can choose to buy meat from local producers. We can buy vegetables from local farms and honey from local sources. We can give up travelling to the U.S. to buy gasoline.
One of the phone apps on either Apple or Google phones is checking the label. It will not only tell you where the item is produced but also what Canadian alternatives are available. It can help us to support Canadian manufacturers. We can choose not to travel to U.S. destinations to take winter cruises or winter vacations in southern US states. We can spend our money elsewhere where governments appreciate Canadians.
We still appreciate our American friends, but the U.S. government has made it impossible to like the leadership of that nation. For almost two years we have realized that America is changing. We must change too to meet these new challenges.
