Majority of Americans against Lake Ontario name change, Canada tariffs: Poll
The Hill · C · trust 52/100
Comments: by Mira Bhakta - 09/01/26 8:16 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Mira Bhakta - 09/01/26 8:16 PM ET Comments: Link copied NOW PLAYING A majority of Americans are against President Trump’s recent decisions to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” and impose additional tariffs on Canada, a new survey suggests.
The Ipsos/Reuters poll , published Tuesday, reported that 63 percent of respondents opposed Lake Ontario’s renaming, while 14 percent supported the decision and 21 percent said they did not know.
Despite sharing a party with the president, just one-third of Republicans approved of the executive order, while 43 percent were in opposition. Only 6 percent of Democratic respondents supported the move — aligning closely with party lawmakers.
Tuesday’s survey also found that 46 percent of its respondents felt the U.S. was “more responsible” for its current trade dispute with Canada — the most common response among participants.
The trade war commenced when talks between the U.S. and Canada fell through in late August, causing Trump’s 50 percent tariffs on a variety of Canadian goods to go into effect.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney retaliated, saying his government will match the U.S. tariffs “dollar for dollar” starting Sept. 8.
Trump then threatened to take the trade war even further by raising tariffs on additional Canadian goods — such as cars, automotive parts and steel — to 50 percent starting on Jan. 1.
The newly published poll also found that 20 percent of respondents supported enacting more tariffs on Canada, 57 percent opposed them and 21 percent stated they did not know.
Meanwhile, 68 percent of respondents believed the U.S. should be willing to make tradeoffs with Canada “even if it means it doesn’t get most of what it wants” — while 25 percent wanted their country to “take a tough stance” on its northern neighbor.
The ongoing tit-for-tat tariffs between the two countries currently impact an estimated $20 billion in Canadian goods, but this number will increase if Trump’s additional taxes go into effect in 2027.
In an Aug. 24 social media post, economist Brad Setser wrote that Trump’s 50 percent tariffs pose a “direct cost” to the U.S. economy given that Canadian cars and trucks use “a lot” of American-made content.
When asked what potential impact the tariffs will have on the respondents’ “own personal financial situation,” only 4 percent predicted it to be mostly positive while 40 predicted it to be mostly negative and 27 percent said the tariffs will not have much of an impact at all.
The poll uses a sample of 1,023 American adults and was conducted between Aug. 28-30. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points.
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