TOI Correspondent From Washington: US-Canada relations are in danger of tipping into Niagara Falls, which straddles both countries, after MAGA boss Donald Trump threatened to rename Lake Ontario, into which the storied waterfall empties -- as Lake America. Ontario’s pugnacious premier Doug Ford in turn effectively said "bring it on," warning of cutting electricity exports to the US and restricting critical minerals such as nickel and uranium.The latest installment of the increasingly surreal trade war between neighbors who have the longest peaceful and unmilitarized border in the world (8891 kms) came after Trump decided that if Canada will not fall in line economically, he will mess with it cartographically.“The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer,” Trump posted on his social media account, with a separate post showing the change in nomenclature.Having already rechristened the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” the US President appears to be discovering that the North American atlas is offering more opportunities for rebranding, with Venezuela and Cuba possibly next in line. But jokes aside, there is a distinctly serious undertone to the developments where U.S ties with two benign neighbors is turning toxic.Canada on Tuesday announced retaliatory tariffs covering more than 700 American products worth roughly $20 billion after Trump wielded his tariff bazooka first. The measures, due to take effect Sept. 8, include tariffs of 15%, 25% and 50% on American exports ranging from steel and dairy to appliances, seafood and cosmetics. Ottawa also announced a C$7.5 billion support package for industries hit by the dispute.The latest confrontation follows the collapse of trade talks after Canadian PM Mark Carney rejected U.S. demands he claimed went beyond trade, touching Canadian cultural and French-language protections. Trump, for his part, insists Canada has been “ripping off” America for decades and says the country is “easily the most difficult and unreasonable” trading partner, even as he denied having problems with Canada’s French heritage.“I would never interfere with Canadians speaking French! In fact, I have never even thought of doing such a stupid thing. This lie was made up by a weak and ineffective Prime Minister in an attempt to gain political support, which he has totally lost, from the people of Quebec. I love French Canadians!” Trump wrote.There is a delicious historical irony to Trump's proposed renaming campaign. “Ontario” is derived from the Iroquoian word kanadario, generally translated as “sparkling water.” “Canada” itself is said to come from the Huron-Iroquois word kanata, meaning “village” or “settlement.” And “America”? That name wasn't exactly minted in Philadelphia. It came from Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer, with German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller first putting “America” on his 1507 map.So, historically speaking, the names of both countries and the lake in question are products of Indigenous languages and European cartography. Nobody involved in today's quarrel can quite claim to have invented the labels, and the geopolitical equivalent of “finders, keepers” is therefore on rather shaky historical ground.The larger casualty from the spat may be something less easily renamed: the extraordinary ease with which the US and Canada once conducted business. For generations, the two countries were the diplomatic equivalent of the neighbors who borrowed each other's lawnmowers and never bothered with keeping the score. Their economies became so intertwined that auto parts can cross the border repeatedly before a finished vehicle emerges; energy, minerals, agriculture and manufacturing operate through deeply integrated supply chains.Trump's aggressive trade strategy has shaken that comfortable arrangement. Carney has said Canada will return to negotiations if Washington changes its approach, but the relationship has already entered unfamiliar territory. America and Canada used to have the world's longest undefended border. Now the only thing crossing it freely may be heated words.