Americans now want to rename another Ontario Great Lake

A U.S. lawmaker is trying to have the name of Lake Erie changed to "Lake Pennsylvania."

State Representative David Maloney, a Republican from Pennsylvania (unsurprisingly), announced on Tuesday that he is drafting a resolution to have the Great Lake, which borders Ontario, renamed after the U.S. state that occupies just a sliver of Lake Erie's coast.

Maloney's resolution would officially request U.S. President Donald Trump and the Department of the Interior to change the lake's name, arguing that his state does much of the heavy lifting of maintaining Lake Erie and should therefore…get naming rights?

"Every summer, Pennsylvanians head toward the lake—north on I-79 from western Pennsylvania, west on I-80 from central and eastern Pennsylvania and along connecting highways from every corner of the Commonwealth—with boats, fishing gear and families in tow," Maloney said in a Sept. 8 press release.

"This is Pennsylvania's only Great Lake. Its modern economy and identity are increasingly tied to the boaters, anglers, families and tourists who come to enjoy it," Maloney said.

"Ohio has plenty of shoreline. New York already has two Great Lakes. Canada has four others. Pennsylvania has one. Let's call it Lake Pennsylvania!"

Beyond the surface-level stupidity of Maloney's ploy for the U.S. President's attention, Pennsylvania has just 82 kilometres of coastline along Lake Erie, compared to Ontario's 639 kilometres stretching from the Detroit River to the Niagara River. 

So, if you were going to rename the body of water after anywhere, it would, hilariously, be Ontario. 

Maloney's resolution follows Trump's August 27 executive order to rename Lake Ontario to "Lake America," a move that at least offered some comic relief across Canada amid an escalating trade war with the U.S.

The unilateral renaming of a shared lake has not been met with a warm reception north of the border and has even sparked campaigns for Canadian authorities to rename bodies of water after Barack Obama in revenge for Trump's latest salvo in a cross-border war of words with Ontario Premier Doug Ford.