{"id":329724,"date":"2026-08-26T00:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T00:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/329724\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T00:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T00:32:15","slug":"lake-america-brad-bradford-floats-new-name-for-n-y-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/329724\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake America: Brad Bradford floats new name for N.Y. state"},"content":{"rendered":"

If U.S. President Donald Trump renames Lake Ontario as Lake America<\/a> to spite the province amid a trade war, Toronto mayoral candidate Brad Bradford says that New York state should be known as \u201cthe Province of New York.\u201d <\/p>\n

Trump threatened to rename the Great Lake in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday morning, saying that he doesn\u2019t expect to conduct \u201cmuch business with Ontario any longer.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hours later, Bradford shared a video on social media<\/a> with a message for Trump: \u201cTwo can play that game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradford pointed to New York, which borders Lake Ontario with Toronto, and referenced the state\u2019s history. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom 1664 until 1776, it was actually called the Province of New York<\/a>. It was a British colony and it was named after a duke,\u201d Bradford said in the video, while sitting on a bench facing Lake Ontario. The colony was name in honour of James II of England, the Duke of York. <\/p>\n

Should Bradford be elected in the upcoming municipal elections on Oct. 26, he joked that he will see to it that New York is known as \u201cthe Province of New York\u201d to honour its colonial roots. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m even happy to send him a plaque,\u201d Bradford said. \u201cWhen President Trump retires, and he can\u2019t retire soon enough, he\u2019ll be able to look out his window, way up in Trump Tower and see the great Province of New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jokes aside, Bradford says threatening to change the name of a shared body of water between two countries will not dampen Torontonians\u2019 patriotism, who instead can fight back against the new round of tariffs by buying Canadian. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t change what Washington does, but we can change how Toronto shows up for its own,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Chris Alexander<\/a>, who is also running for mayor in the upcoming municipal election, said Bradford is \u201ctaking light\u201d of the ongoing trade war with the U.S. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in an unprecedented trade war with the United States and look at what\u2019s on offer. One candidate is playing name games with the American president,\u201d Alexander said in an email to CTV News, in response to Bradford\u2019s \u201cProvince of New York\u201d promise.<\/p>\n

\u201cA trade war is no time for grand-standing. It\u2019s a threat to jobs, to investment, to every household in this city.\u201d<\/p>\n

CTV News Toronto contacted the campaign of Olivia Chow for comment about Bradford\u2019s proposal but has not yet heard back.<\/p>\n

Speaking with reporters on Monday, Chow said that while new tariffs on a wide range of Canadian goods are \u201cgoing to hurt,\u201d she is confident that Toronto\u2019s economy can withstand the impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cToronto is incredibly resilient, even during this climate of uncertainty. In 2026, we are on track to create 16,000 jobs, new jobs. Whereas in America in a lot of the major cities the unemployment rate is etching up, our unemployment rate, I believe, is etching down,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If U.S. President Donald Trump renames Lake Ontario as Lake America to spite the province amid a trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[16834,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-329724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-apple-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}