A Pennsylvania Republican has a simple proposal for the Great Lakes: if President Donald Trump is renaming bodies of water, why not give Pennsylvania its own?
State Rep. David Maloney is preparing a resolution urging President Trump, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Congress to take steps toward renaming Lake Erie as “Lake Pennsylvania.”
Maloney’s argument is straightforward: Pennsylvania has only one Great Lake, while other states and Canada have plenty of shoreline to spare.
“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.”
Then came the punchline.
“Pennsylvania has one. Let’s call it Lake Pennsylvania!” Maloney added.
The proposal comes as the Trump administration has made geographic names an unexpected part of its America First agenda.
Trump recently signed an executive order directing the federal government to use “Lake America” for Lake Ontario. The move has been rejected by Canada, whose officials continue to recognize the historic name.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pushed back, saying, “We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always.”
But there is an important limitation: the U.S. federal government cannot simply force Canada or international organizations to adopt a new name. The Lake America designation applies to U.S. federal usage.
Still, the Trump administration's naming push has had a visible effect inside the United States. Apple Maps and Google Maps changed the name displayed to U.S. users after the executive order.
And Trump has not stopped there.
The president has also floated changing the name of New Mexico to “New America,” prompting Democratic lawmakers from the state to pressure Apple and Google to keep “New Mexico” on their mapping platforms.
Trump has even suggested renaming the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Now Pennsylvania wants in.
Lake Erie, the shallowest of the Great Lakes and the smallest by volume, is far more than a name on a map. Its watershed includes roughly 12 million people, with about 10.5 million in the United States and 1.9 million in Canada.
For Pennsylvania, the lake is tied directly to tourism, recreation, fishing and local communities along the state's northwestern shoreline.
Whether “Lake Pennsylvania” ever becomes anything more than a legislative proposal remains to be seen. But Maloney's resolution captures something larger about the current political moment: under Trump, even the names Americans see on their maps have become part of a broader argument over national identity.
And apparently, Pennsylvania Republicans are perfectly happy to put their own name on the water.
