A “scheduling issue,” and not deepening political friction or American barbs at Canada’s military, is to blame for a U.S. Air Force demo team pulling out of the Canadian International Air Show in Toronto this weekend, organizers said.

In a social media post earlier this week, organizers of “North America’s longest running air show” held each year on Toronto’s waterfront announced that the U.S. Air Force’s F-16 Viper Demonstration Team would no longer be participating in this year’s show. “Last-minute schedule changes are a reality of real time Air Show operations, and these decisions remain outside of our control,” the CIAS said.

“Our full remaining lineup, including celebrating the 55th Anniversary of the CF Snowbirds, RCAF CF-18 Hornet and our WWII Heritage Flight, remains set for an incredible weekend” the post read . “Transparency with our fans is a top priority, and we will always keep you informed of any updates.”

Speculation ran high over whether the abrupt call off was down to the trade war, U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America” or U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s taunts this week that Canada’s navy lacks military firepower. “I mean, we’re not at war with Canada. How are we going to be at war with Canada,” Bessent said on CNBC. “What, are they going to take their two submarines from the Edmonton mall and sic them on us?”

As reported by the Toronto Sun , organizers said the rhetoric and mocking had “absolutely nothing” to do with the 11th hour schedule adjustment.

“It was a scheduling issue,” CIAS executive director Lori Duthie told reporters at the air show’s media day. “We work very closely, our Canadian Forces and the United States Air Force across North America.”

In a statement to the Sun, a spokesperson for the F-16 Viper Demonstration team also blamed a double booking.

The team “sincerely regrets to announce that, due to a scheduling conflict, they are unable to participate in this weekend’s Canadian International Air Show,” Staff-Sgt. Steven Cardo said. The U.S. Air Force demo team is scheduled to perform at an air show in Batavia, New York Sept. 5 and 6. The Toronto air show takes place Sept. 5 to 7 during the final weekend of the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition).

“Decisions to withdraw from the scheduled appearances are never made lightly,” Cardo said. “We understand the anticipation surrounding this event and extend our deepest apologies to the air show organizers, our Canadian partners, and the aviation fans who looked forward to our performance.”

National Post

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Three Ontario byelections delivered status quo results on Thursday night, with the Progressive Conservatives holding two ridings and the NDP retaining the third.

The victories in York-Simcoe and Hamilton East-Stoney Creek were a bounce-back of sorts for Premier Doug Ford, who suffered a string of dismal poll results in the spring after the ill-fated purchase of a private jet for his travels and an MPP expense scandal. Ford’s popularity has jumped recently after he took a leading role in a very public fight with U.S. President Donald Trump over tariffs and trade.

Jeff Beattie, a Hamilton councillor, held a seven-point lead over the NDP’s Monique Taylor, a former MPP, with almost all the polls reporting. Heino Doessing, for the Liberals, was a distant third. Former PC cabinet minister Neil Lumsden retired in June.

In York-Simcoe, the riding north of Toronto that was recently held by PC cabinet minister Caroline Mulroney, local councillor Susan Lahey appeared likely to cruise to a Tory victory that was widely expected. She was up by more than 12 percentage points (50-38) over Liberal candidate Naomi Davison with most polls reporting. The NDP were polling at less than five per cent in York-Simcoe, which has been a PC stronghold.

There was better news for Marit Stiles and the Official Opposition NDP in Scarborough Southwest, where Fatima Shaban was poised to win a seat formerly held by Doly Begun, who left the provincial NDP to run (and win) in the riding for Mark Carney’s Liberals. Shaban, who had lost in multiple attempts to win the riding federally, held a comfortable 10-point lead (40-30) with most polls reporting over Liberal candidate Ahsanul Hafiz.

Hafiz, who owns more than two dozen Domino’s Pizza franchises, won the Scarborough Southwest nomination for the Liberals after a bitter race against former federal MP Nate Erksine-Smith. The one-time Trudeau cabinet minister alleged wrongdoing in the vote, but his appeal was dismissed. Having planned to use the Scarborough seat as his first step toward running for the Ontario Liberal leadership, Erskine-Smith is now seeking a spot on Toronto city council.

Thursday night’s results were never going to have a significant impact on the composition of the legislature at Queen’s Park, where Ford’s PCs have a comfortable majority. But as with Carney’s sweep of three federal byelections earlier this week, Ford appears to have found a winning message amid the trade war. He last week called Trump a loser and told him to “kiss my ass,” and after the president ordered the renaming of Lake Ontario to Lake America, Ford unveiled a massive Lake Ontario sign near the Hamilton waterfront.

The victory in Scarborough, meanwhile, was close to a must-win for Stiles and the NDP, given that her party has routinely trailed the Liberals in recent polling, even though that party is without a permanent leader. The Liberals will select a new leader in November.

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A 618-page report from 1986 examining the postwar arrival in Canada of those alleged of Nazi war crimes still hasn’t been fully declassified, but certain segments must now be made public, according to a recent Federal Court ruling.

In a 21-page ruling issued Tuesday, Justice Simon Fothergill said the public interest in preserving the historical record, the many decades that have passed and the weakness of the government’s reasons for continued secrecy all weighed in favour of increased disclosure of historian Alti Rodal’s report.

“We deserve the opportunity to learn from our past and to come to terms with the shortcomings of Canada,” Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s Director of Research and Advocacy said.

The decision follows years of attempts to obtain an uncensored version of the study, Nazi War Criminals in Canada: The Historical and Policy Setting from the 1940s to the Present, commonly called the Rodal Report.

Prepared for the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada — the Deschênes Commission — the report examined the circumstances under which alleged Nazi war criminals and collaborators came to Canada after the Second World War. Although substantial parts of the previously unpublished study have become public, significant passages remained concealed.

Rodal concluded that weak screening procedures enabled some perpetrators of Nazi crimes to enter Canada.

Robertson told the National Post that it was his organization’s advocacy that pushed the case, as it was in February 2024, when Library and Archives Canada released new segments in response to an access-to-information request from B’nai Brith. The release revealed numerous passages that had previously been censored, but redactions remained on seven pages in one section and in RCMP file references contained in 14 endnotes.

The contents of newly declassified materials are as yet unknown, he said.

The still-withheld section concerned Canadian officials’ 1954 discovery of a covert U.S. intelligence initiative that allegedly helped Nazis and Nazi collaborators settle in Canada while bypassing normal security procedures.

Library and Archives Canada argued that the withheld text was protected by section 15(1)(a) of the Access to Information Act, which permits the government to refuse disclosure where release could harm Canada’s international relations. It also relied on section 13 for one passage: a U.S. official’s assessment of American immigration law that Canada had allegedly received in confidence from the United States.

The agency also withheld RCMP file numbers under section 15(1)(d)(ii), which covers intelligence information whose release could undermine efforts to detect, prevent, or suppress subversive or hostile activity.

Justice Fothergill dismissed all but one of Library and Archives Canada’s exemption arguments. He found that the institution had not established that releasing information of clear historical importance would, today, damage Canada’s international relations or national security.

Greater public knowledge of the country’s past, he added, promotes informed discussion and reinforces democratic life.

The judge allowed the continued withholding of the quoted U.S. official’s remarks under section 13, because the material had been received from a foreign government in confidence. Still, he described the contents as apparently “innocuous” and said Canada should continue seeking U.S. permission to disclose them.

“Frankly, I think the opening of the report, if that actually happens any time soon, is a non-event. There’s likely nothing in the report that’s not already known, or at least suspected by the Jewish community. I think the bigger story is how hard over the years the Canadian government has fought the Jewish community on every level regarding this issue. The non-release of this report until now is just a symptom of that,” said Steven Rambam, founder and CEO of Pallorium, Inc., a Brooklyn-based licensed investigative agency.

In the mid-1990s, Rambam and his associates compiled a list of 2,000 possible Nazi war criminals living in Canada, and winnowed them down to 200 of the worst to investigate. He located 170 suspected Nazi war criminals and collaborators living in Canada, and interviewed about 70 of them undercover.

“I can personally attest to the fact that all the war criminals were known decades ago. The Canadian government could have done much, much more,” he told the Post. “There’s no war criminal that entered Canada that wasn’t known to the RCMP. That I feel confident in saying.”

The federal government has 30 days to appeal the Sept. 1 ruling, and Robertson said that “it’s a real possibility” that they could do so, to delay even further.

“What will the unsealing of the few remaining portions of this report, if it happens, actually reveal to Canadians or to the Jewish community in particular? Nothing that hasn’t already been known for decades,” Rambam said. Complete accountability, in Robertson’s view, would look like “full disclosure of Canada’s Nazi past, the full release of the Rodal Report, the full release of the Deschenes Commission Part 2, and turning this into part of Canadian education, so that Canadians can learn from the mistakes of our past and can understand them and come to grips with them.”

He added: “Rather than try to sweep that history under the rug and to fight about whether or not that history should be disclosed to the public, our government should be exercising its ability in acting with moral fortitude, and leadership.”

The issue of Canada’s allowing in of suspected former Nazis returned sharply to public attention in September 2023, when MPs in parliament gave a standing ovation to Yaroslav Hunka, who had served in the Waffen-SS Galicia Division. The controversy prompted renewed scrutiny of Canada’s immigration, vetting, and historical-record practices concerning alleged Nazi war criminals and collaborators.

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Amid bitter trade tensions with the Trump administration, a redesigned Canadian $20 bank note was officially unveiled Thursday featuring a portrait of King Charles, who hailed Canada as “indeed strong and free” amid hostility from the U.S.

The new vertical note, the second in the Bank of Canada’s vertical series, was held out at an official unveiling in Ottawa Thursday as “more than a piece of currency” — and the most popular one at that among Canadians.

“It’s also a reflection of the strength and stability of Canada’s financial system, one of the most trusted in the world and an important foundation of our economic resilience,” said Liberal MP Wayne Long, secretary of state for the Canada Revenue Agency and Financial Institutions.

In addition to being “a beautiful work of art,” the new bank note, like all Canadian currency, is a “symbol of confidence,” Long said. “Confidence in our institutions, confidence in our economy and confidence in our future.”

The unveiling might seem a strategically timed move to shore up support from the King, who, during his official visit to the White House in April reminded U.S. President Donald Trump, who’d been taunting Canadians with “51st state” rhetoric and references to Prime Minister Mark Carney as “governor,” that the monarch is Canada’s official head of state.

The U.S. and Canada were set to host the FIFA World Cup. “So in one sense, Mr. President, as heads of state, we are joint hosts,” the King said at the time.

Last year, the King declared “the True North is indeed strong and free” during an historic throne speech opening Parliament.

In addition to featuring distinctive symbols of Canadian identity, Canada’s currency “affirms our sovereignty and our determination to define ourselves in the eyes of the world on our own terms,” Governor General Louise Arbour said.

The new vertical $20 bill is “both visually stunning and more secure than ever,” Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said at Thursday’s unveiling (the new note won’t enter circulation until February 2027).

The “dynamic features” on the new, and still predominantly green bill are “easy to check, and hard to fake,” Macklem said.

For example, tilting the purple security stripe makes images of maple leaves, poppies and 20s pulse, spin and move, features to help thwart counterfeiters and allow Canadians to easily authenticate the new note.

The portrait of King Charles on the front is surrounded by a “floral and leafy tapestry inspired by the King’s lifetime dedication to the environment,” reads a Bank of Canada press release.

It is the first bank note to feature a portrait of the King since his accession to the throne following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on Sept. 8, 2022.

The image on the back features the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in northern France, a war memorial commemorating Canadians who served during the First World War, “particularly those whose final resting place is unknown,” Macklem said.

The bank note features the official flower of every province and territory, gold maple leaves and raised ink on the King’s portrait. A circular window features plants that are culturally important to Indigenous Peoples — wild strawberries, western red cedar, braided sweetgrass and Arctic cotton.

The first bank note in the vertical series, a $10 note, features the civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond.

Canadians use the $20 bank note more than any other denomination.

Since 1937, when King George VI first appeared on the $20 bill, Canada’s banknotes “have borne the likenesses of Canada’s sovereign monarchs,” Arbour said.

Queen Elizabeth II was featured on Canada’s bank notes for more than seven decades, “first as a young princess and then as the reigning sovereign,” Arbour said.

“Her image became one of the most recognizable in our currency for generations of Canadians.”

“Today, this tradition continues with His Majesty King Charles III,” she said.

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OTTAWA — The Carney government needs to be more transparent in identifying which types of major projects are national priorities, says a leading think tank on the eve of a major Canadian investment summit.

In an open letter to be released Friday, the C.D. Howe Institute said Canada also needs to be clearer about processes and timelines for major projects, which have been identified by the federal government as a key building block in efforts to build a stronger economy.

After almost a decade under former prime minister Justin Trudeau where infrastructure investments waned, Prime Minister Mark Carney opened up a major projects office in Calgary a year ago to try to speed up regulatory approvals and financing. A number of projects have since been approved but some of those were already in the works, while others have been approved but are not yet under construction.

“This is how we give investors the certainty they need, complete projects more efficiently, and create lasting economic growth,” the institute wrote in a document obtained by National Post.

The letter, from the institute’s chief executive Jeremy Kronick, also says that if Canada is to attract more investment, the country needs to better leverage its abundant energy resources, while using both conventional and renewable energy to better diversify the economy.

C.D. Howe also argues that the government needs to cut both business and individual taxes so that Canada is more attractive to new capital.

The Canada Investment Summit is to be held in Toronto on Sept 14-15 and is expected to attract about 250 investment and financial services leaders from around the world. The event is seen as an important opportunity for Canadian political and business officials to sell Canada as a place to invest.

Achieving that goal became more difficult late last month, however, when trade talks with the United States broke down, leaving access to the world’s largest market uncertain in some sectors.

The summit is a key piece of Ottawa’s effort to attract at least $1 trillion in investments — at least half of that new and from the private sector — over the next five years in areas such as infrastructure, mines, energy, defence, housing and artificial intelligence.

Many of the summit’s events are led by Canadian political or business leaders who are expected to present Canada’s case. Carney is scheduled to open the event with a keynote speech.

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U.S. President Donald Trump said 50 per cent tariffs targeting Canada’s aircraft industry was prompted by a complaint from a friend who couldn’t buy the corporate jet of his choosing.

Trump made the remark during a six-minute-long rant about Canada in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

“I had a case about a week ago, where a friend of mine was buying a Gulfstream jet, and he said, ‘You know, it’s a crazy thing. We’re not able — that Canada won’t certify Gulfstream,’” Trump said.

“Gulfstream is the best private jet, you know, the best of the best,” he noted, adding that Canada “won’t certify it because they make a competitor, Bombardier Global Express.”

The unprompted remark appeared to be a glimpse into what was behind his threat to decertify Canadian-made aircraft and impose 50 per cent tariff on sales back in January.

The friend was close to Gulfstream, Trump said, and had asked the head of the company to arrange a call with him and explain the situation.

“We called, we spoke,” he said, adding that the head of Gulfstream told him the American manufacturer had spent $60 million trying to get certified in Canada for “nine years without success.”

“So I immediately said, ‘I’m putting a major tariff on Bombardier and other things that they sent until they’re certified,'” Trump said.

“They got certified in two hours.”

He had spoken to the prime minister, Trump said, without naming Mark Carney directly.

“Essentially (Gulfstream) can’t sell any plane in anything having to do with Canada, but Bombardier has free rein over the United States,” Trump said, while noting they were both “very good planes.”

“I said, ‘So what we’re going to do is, we’re going to charge you tariffs on various products, including Bombardier,’” he added. “We put a nice big tariff. And within 30 minutes, I guess it took maybe less, everything got certified.”

In February, Transport Canada granted regulatory approval to two business jets produced by Gulfstream. It came nearly four weeks after Trump had threatened to decertify Bombardier and impose 50 per cent tariffs on all aircraft sold by Canada to the United States.

Trump’s anecdote was part of a litany of complaints he had about Canada’s trade practices amid a trade war between the two countries covering roughly 5 per cent of Canadian exports. Trump was answering a question on his plans to renew trade talks with Ottawa.

In his response, Trump said the U.S. does not need “anything” from Canada, adding that its leaders were “emboldened,” and was “toughest” to deal with. The remarks were made during a meeting with travel executives to mark the end of the summer season.

“We can’t lose 60 to $100 billion dollars for the privilege of allowing them to make cars; we don’t want their cars,” Trump added. However, in reality, the U.S. runs a trade surplus with Canada in the auto sector, according to RBC.

Trump also seemingly voiced displeasure at Doug Ford, who he referred to as a “slob” without naming the Ontario premier directly.

He also repeated an unfounded claim that Canada barred U.S. banks from operating within its borders. ”I think they have six or seven major banks here, (but) we don’t have our banks there,” Trump said.

That assertion has been contradicted by the Canadian Bankers Association, which pointed out in 2025 that 16 U.S. based bank subsidiaries and branches operate in Canada.

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OTTAWA – Prime Minister Mark Carney rebuffed U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s recent comments that Canada pulled out of trade talks with the U.S. due to political reasons.

“I don’t think, with all respect, appointed, unelected cabinet members in the United States are experts on Canadian politics,” said Carney, during an announcement in Thunder Bay, Ont., on Thursday.

Carney was in the northern Ontario city announcing a $4.7-billion contract to build over 300 new Via Rail passenger rail cars.

The prime minister’s comments come after Lutnick claimed the reasons Canada blew up trade talks last month were “manufactured” and had to do with the Quebec provincial election and Alberta’s referendum.

Both the Canadian and American governments have blamed each other for the breakdown in negotiations.

Carney said several last-minute conditions on the U.S. side of negotiations made accepting a deal untenable.

He cited the addition of language on auto industry tariffs, such as a failure by the U.S. to reduce tariffs on heavy-duty trucks like the ones produced in auto plants in Southern Ontario. He also cited “efforts to restrict our protections of our language, our culture, and in effect, our sovereignty.”

Lutnick and United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer have both said the French language provisions were not a red line for American negotiators.

On Wednesday, Lutnick told CNBC a Canadian minister did not deny it when asked if Canadian negotiators were trying to “blow up” trade talks on Aug. 21.

Lutnick also claimed Canada had made several last-minute demands of its own.

Carney said the Americans have changed their stances since negotiations halted.

“I’ll say one other thing, which is that there are a few issues that the United States was arguing right up to the last hour, red lines weren’t going to change, boom, it’s in there, you know, our way or the highway, take it or leave it, you know, attitude,” he said.

“Some of what they’re saying now is different than what they were drawing the line on, and we are always going to stand up for what’s in the best interest of Canada workers, Canadian families,” Carney added.

The prime minister said his government is not looking for an easy win, but said a deal is still possible with the U.S.

“The deal that’s possible, that’s in the interests of Canadian workers, families, and businesses, is also the deal that is in the interests of American families, American businesses, American consumers,” said Carney.

“We’re ready to sit down and strike that deal when the Americans are ready,” he added.

In addition to the Section 232 tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum, autos and lumber, Canada also faces a 50-per-cent tariff under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which applies to $28 billion worth of Canadian exports to the U.S.

In response to the Section 338 tariffs, Canada has promised to retaliate with tariffs ranging from 15 to 50 per cent on $27.6 billion worth of U.S. products, effective Sept. 8.

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A U.S. withdrawal from the Canada-United-States-Mexico trade agreement (CUSMA) would have a “severe but not cataclysmic impact on Canada’s overall economy, although perhaps cataclysmic for some sectors,” according to a new report released this week by Deloitte Canada.

The report is titled “Tariffs: A rough road leads to new destinations,” and imagines two broad scenarios in the near future.

In the first, the “CUSMA Withdrawal Scenario,” the U.S. opts out of CUSMA entirely. “Trade resets at Most-Favoured-Nation rates that apply to member countries in the World Trade Organization,” the report says. It assumes a 10 per cent global tariff imposed by the U.S. affects previously CUSMA-exempt sectors, including oil and gas.

“There is potential for much worse if the Trump administration imposes further punitive tariffs on Canadian goods, as it has stated will happen in January,” the report notes, but it’s uncertain how long they would last and whether they would withstand legal and political challenges.

Even without a worst-case-scenario, however, the outlook is rough. The report predicts Canadian GDP would fall 1.6 per cent by 2036 relative to where it was last July, representing $402 billion in lost GDP over the coming decade.

“Domestic investment in things like infrastructure and machinery take a hit and employment is also projected to shrink by 163,000 jobs annually on average,” it says. “Average wages would likely decline, cutting into domestic consumption and household purchasing power.”

The pain would not be shared equally, with sectors that rely heavily on exports suffering the most. Manufacturing could see a 28 per cent drop in GDP over the decade, while electronics, machinery and equipment could lose 21 per cent, rubber and plastics products 20 per cent, and chemicals 13 per cent.

Oil and gas would fare better, with a loss of 0.4 per cent in GDP for oil and 0.9 per cent for natural gas — the “severe, not cataclysmic” part of the forecast.

The second scenario is called “Accelerated diversification” and paints a somewhat rosier picture. In this “best-case scenario,” Canada maintains all its existing free trade agreements while successfully negotiating new ones elsewhere.

Here the report predicts GDP growth of 0.6 per cent by 2036, representing $141 billion and the creation of 53,000 jobs a year. The gains aren’t as large as the losses under the first scenario, but at least they’re positive.

“Agriculture … represents one of our highest potential growth sectors, particularly to the extent markets open in China and India,” the report finds, predicting a possible increase in crop exports to non-U.S. markets of $4 billion by 2036, and food manufacturing increases of $16 billion.

Manufacturing of electronics, machinery and equipment could grow by $3 billion or 5 per cent, while motor vehicles and parts could increase by $1.1 billion or 3 per cent, and transportation equipment manufacturing and chemical manufacturing by about $1 billion, representing 4 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively.

Matthew Stewart, a partner in the Economics and Financial Advisory group at Deloitte Canada and one of the report’s co-authors, told National Post that, while the numbers are relatively easy to calculate, the future is hard to predict.

“It’s so tough to tell lately,” he said when asked for the odds of America actually walking away from CUSMA. “Every day I hear different things from our government negotiators and the contacts I have. So it’s so tough to tell. It just seems to change direction on a regular basis.”

As to whether the next U.S. administration might behave differently, he’s cautiously optimistic. “It’s clear that trade benefits both economies,” he said. “But it’s clear that there’s increased protectionism across both parties.”

He added: “I’m hopeful that we’ll get back to the table, whether it’s soon or after the (next U.S.) election, and then we’ll be able to restore some normalcy to the trade agreement. But it’s likely that we’re going to continue to see some increased tariffs.”

As to what can be done, Stewart sees several tactics beyond inking more free-trade deals with other partners.

“It’s also transportation capacity,” he said. “If we can build better transportation capacity, we can get more of our oil and raw materials to market.”

Major projects around critical minerals are also vital, “so that we can develop new markets … to try and offset some of this downside.”

He added: “The final piece that we can do, that is completely within our control, is interprovincial trade barriers. And we have been talking about this for years. And I know we made some effort to reduce them, but there’s still substantial barriers.”

Research by Deloitte found that interprovincial exports’ share of the Canadian economy has remained largely unchanged for more than 30 years, standing at 18.1 per cent of GDP in 2023.

“If Canada is to be tariffed by the U.S. and is looking for offsetting economic gains, it can start at home,” the report says. A Deloitte analysis from last year found that completely phasing out interprovincial trade barriers over five years would generate $881 billion in economic output by 2040 — a 2.4 per cent GDP increase — and create 133,000 new jobs.

Interprovincial trade involves workers as well as goods, Stewart added. “If we can’t move construction workers from B.C. into Manitoba, where we’re building a major project, because of health and safety regulations on those construction workers, it makes it much more expensive.”

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Americans are becoming increasingly divided on their feelings about their northern neighbours and the freshly stoked trade war, according to new polls released this week.

Polling conducted by YouGov for The Economist found that 38 per cent of Republican voters “now view Canada as unfriendly or an enemy, by far the highest level in the past decade” and up from 22 per cent in February polling. Only 12 per cent of Republicans felt the same way in April 2024, before U.S. President Donald Trump began his second term.

Meanwhile, only eight per cent of self-identified Democrats viewed Canada in the same light, up from three per cent this February.

Overall, a majority of Americans (net 64 per cent) describe Canada as either an ally (39 per cent) or friendly (25 per cent). Less than a quarter (net 22 per cent) now see Canada as unfriendly (19 per cent) or an enemy (three per cent) — “a new high since 2016.”

YouGov also polled respondents about Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario to Lake America in the U.S., finding most citizens (68 per cent) strongly or somewhat disapproved of the move.

The 17 per cent who strongly or somewhat approved were predominantly Republicans, but Republicans more broadly were divided, with 41 per cent disapproving and 37 per cent endorsing it.

“The exception is MAGA Republicans: 47 per cent approve of the renaming and 29 per cent disapprove,” YouGov wrote, “while non-MAGA Republicans disapprove by 67 per cent to 22 per cent.”

A similar pattern emerged on a question regarding Canada’s trade treatment of the U.S.

Asked whether they felt Canada was treating the U.S. unfairly in trade, 45 per cent said no, 28 per cent said yes and the remaining 27 per cent were unsure. Republicans (49 per cent) were more likely than Democrats (11 per cent) to say Canada was being unfair.

But fewer Republicans who identified as non-MAGA (33 per cent) judged Canada to be unfair, compared to 58 per cent of MAGA Republicans.

Polling by Ipsos also explored Americans’ feelings on the new 50 per cent tariffs enacted by the Trump administration last month, finding more Republicans support (44 per cent) than oppose (33 per cent) the sanctions, with 22 per cent unsure.

Republicans were similarly split on who was most responsible for the trade hostilities — Canada (31 per cent), the U.S. (19 per cent) or both equally (30 per cent). A fifth of respondents (20 per cent) were unsure.

And when it comes to ending the trade dispute, the majority of respondents (68 per cent) said the U.S. should be willing to “make tradeoffs with Canada even if it means it doesn’t get most of what it wants.” Only a quarter of respondents (25 per cent) want team Trump to “take a tough stance with Canada and insist on getting most of what it wants.”

Across political lines, while Democrat voters are overwhelmingly (88 per cent) in favour of concessions that would leave the U.S. short of its desires, Republicans were largely split on the matter — 47 per cent on the side of trade-offs and 50 per cent in support of holding firm.

Ipsos also asked about the contentious Lake Ontario-Lake America issue, garnering results similar to Leger’s.

More Republicans oppose (43 per cent) than support (33 per cent) the change, but 24 per cent remain unsure. Across the board, 63 per cent of Americans are against Trump’s executive order.

A third poll, conducted by Abacus Data , explored “the political consequences of the trade war in the five states most likely to determine Senate control” following the upcoming U.S. midterm elections — Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Maine and South Carolina, where 500 people were polled, respectively.

It found that those “voters have not turned on Canada.”

Positive impressions of Canada are highest in Maine (81 per cent), “where cross-border ties are part of daily life,” but even the low water mark was still high at 66 per cent in Ohio.

Their “feelings toward the Canadian people are warmer still,” landing between a low of 74 per cent in South Carolina to 87 per cent in Michigan and 88 per cent in Maine.

“Americans are drawing a line between a government dispute and a neighbouring people they continue to like,” Abacus wrote. “For Canadian readers, the audience on the other side of the border is not hostile, it is more conflicted about its own government’s policy.”

Data also indicated that Trump’s own approval rating in every state is higher than approval of how he’s handled trade with Canada — even in the red state of South Carolina, where his approval reaches 46 per cent.

“When one of the president’s signature economic initiatives polls behind the president himself in his strongest state, the initiative is not building his coalition. It is borrowing from it,” the pollster wrote.

Most respondents also predicted the tariffs will be “mostly bad” and hurt the American economy, workers, farmers, their own states and their own households.

“Across 25 combinations of measure and state, ‘mostly bad’ beats ‘mostly good’ every single time, usually by wide margins,” Abacus said.

And given the chance to have the Canada-U.S. relationship return to what it was before Trump, three times as many respondents said they would prefer that to the present fracturing.

“The current state of relations with Canada is not an equilibrium Americans in these states have accepted,” they wrote. “It is a condition most of them want reversed.”

South Carolinans were the only ones on side with the current White House strategy, and only by two points (33 to 35 per cent), “a policy defended likely out of loyalty and a weaker bond with Canada.”

The overall sample of YouGov’s poll, conducted among 1,592 U.S. citizens between Aug. 28-31, has a margin of error of roughly 3.5 per cent, as did Ipsos’ poll of 1,023 people, conducted Aug. 28-30.

Abacus’s survey of 2,500 voters was conducted Aug. 26-28. The overall sample carries a margin of error of 4.4 per cent, while the margin for a probability sample of 500 is two per cent.

• Nearly half want a federal election if new Canada-U.S. trade agreement is reached: poll
• Most Canadians oppose concessions as response to looming 50% U.S. tariffs: poll

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford spent $25,000 on a new Lake Ontario sign. And while there are many reasons to be angry with the Trump administration, “there are a lot cheaper ways to send a message to the president,” Noah Jarvis, Ontario director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), told National Post.

“The president himself does it all the time with his tweets and his posts on Truth Social,” Jarvis added.

The sign, which reads “Lake Ontario, now and always” in both English and French, was unveiled in Winona, Ont. — one of the areas covered by the Hamilton East—Stoney Creek byelection taking place on Thursday.

It was erected just days after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America” in U.S. government records and maps, which has also since been adopted by both Google and Apple Maps for users in the U.S.

Just this past weekend, Trump shared several posts criticizing Canada, including claiming that the U.S. loses $60 billion a year to Canada, that Canada is “ripping off” the U.S. and suggesting that all Canadian companies doing business with America should move to the U.S.

He also shared a screenshot of the new “Lake America” name on Google Maps and an AI video of himself replacing a “Welcome to Lake Ontario” sign with one that reads “Welcome to Lake America” underneath a U.S. flag.

Meanwhile, voters in the area where Ford’s $25,000 sign was erected have started heading to the polls to elect a new MPP, after Progressive Conservative Neil Lumsden retired on Aug. 4. It’s one of three provincial byelections held on the same day, with the others in the Toronto ridings of Scarborough Southwest and York—Simcoe. They come after the Liberals won three byelections that took place on Monday.

When asked if the new Lake Ontario sign might be a strategic move by Ford ahead of the vote, Jarvis said he couldn’t comment on the motivation, but that “when public funds are being used for advertising, the government in power needs to make sure that it is not being used for political reasons.”

It’s an issue the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has previously commented on, after the Ontario government spent a record $103.5 million on advertising in 2023-24. Federal director Franco Terrazzano said at the time that “the rules need to change because politicians shouldn’t be allowed to spend taxpayer money on ads to promote themselves.”

National Post has reached out to the PC Party of Ontario for comment.

The sign’s price tag was first reported by Global News on Tuesday and later confirmed in an email from the premier’s office Wednesday morning to CTV News .

It’s Lake Ontario, now and always. pic.twitter.com/KNahtPAMeJ

— Doug Ford (@fordnation) August 29, 2026

Unveiling the sign in a video posted on X on Saturday, the Ontario premier said, “You may have heard that President Trump is trying to rename this lake all because he doesn’t like Ontario and Canada standing up for ourselves.”

Ford continued: “Long before President Trump, this lake was called Lake Ontario. And long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario. But just in case President Trump or anyone else forgets, we have set up a sign to remind them, it’s Lake Ontario now and forever.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney also responded to Trump’s actions shortly after the executive order was signed, explaining on social media that the name Lake Ontario is more than 400 years old and predates both Canadian Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

“Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always,” he added.

And several U.S. politicians condemned Trump’s executive order , too, including former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who simply wrote, “It’s Lake Ontario,” in a post on X , and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said, “The American people don’t want to rename Lake Ontario Lake America.”

No, President Trump. The American people don’t want to rename Lake Ontario Lake America.

They want affordable healthcare, childcare, housing, education & nutrition assistance — all of which you have massively cut in order to pay for your $1 trillion tax break to the top 1%. https://t.co/G6dmmW1ITg

— Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) August 27, 2026

The new sign is the latest move in Ford’s combative stance against the U.S. and its president after trade negotiations collapsed last month.

He previously told Toronto radio station Newstalk 1010 that Trump could “kiss my ass,” to which the U.S. president responded with a Truth Social post in which he called Ford “flunky” and compared him unfavourably to his late brother, former Toronto mayor Rob Ford.

Later that day, while speaking at a press conference in Hamilton, Ford refused to back away from his blunt language, saying that he had “plenty of real estate” on his behind for Trump to find a place to kiss.

When asked about Trump’s criticism, Ford said: “I’ve dealt with guys like that my whole life,” before directing a blunt message to the U.S. president: “You’re a loser.”

However, the Ontario premier said at a news conference later that week that things had since “simmered down” between himself and Trump, adding that “it was a heated day for both him and I.”

Nevertheless, Ford’s tough stance on the trade war appears to have lent him a boost in support , with a recent Liaison Strategies poll showing that his approval rating has sharply rebounded from 24 per cent in July to 36 per cent at the end of August. The poll also found that Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives now lead the Liberals in the province by four points.

But the national picture is very different. A separate Liaison Strategies poll published Aug. 31 showed the Liberals opening a 17-point lead over the Conservatives, with Carney’s approval rating rising by five points to 64 per cent.

Conservative support, however, had fallen below 30 per cent nationally.

• Doug Ford erects sign to remind Donald Trump 'it's Lake Ontario now and forever'
• Lake Ontario renamed 'Lake America' for U.S. users of Apple Maps

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