Canadian businesses see sales surge for Lake Ontario merchandise after Trump renaming
Companies selling chocolate bars, coin purses and sweatshirts featuring Lake Ontario say demand is high a month after the U.S. president renamed the body of water.
TORONTO — Canadian businesses are seeing a surge in sales of Lake Ontario merchandise a month after U.S. President Donald Trump renamed the body of water to Lake America.
Peace by Chocolate, a company founded by Syrian refugees in Antigonish, N.S., created a Lake Ontario chocolate bar within a day of the late August announcement. The 92-gram milk chocolate and maple cream bar is made with Ontario ingredients, wrapped in a Canadian flag and includes information about the lake's Indigenous origins.
"We wanted to be there for our country, no matter how odd that it sounded," said Tareq Hadhad, the company's chief executive. The treat quickly became one of Peace by Chocolate's five bestselling bars, generating coast-to-coast interest and emails from the United States.
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The reaction has been just as strong for other Canadian companies selling Lake Ontario products, ranging from candles and caps to cottage decor.
Teresa Paul, owner of Rockwood, Ont., leather goods company Hides in Hand, said the Lake Ontario coin purses she started making recently are a "pretty hot" commodity. Customers often buy two at craft fairs or a store in Erin, Ont.
"People are like, 'Yep, I want it. Yep, I'll take two,'" Paul said. "They love them."
The red or blue leather pouches are embroidered with the outline and name of Lake Ontario, made with Canadian components. Paul designed them after Trump's lake renaming "rubbed me the wrong way."
"Because I'm a leather designer, my way of responding was to actually make something," she said. "It's that little expression of Lake Ontario and Canadian pride. Nothing angry, nothing over political. Just something practical, something that meant home to me."
Province of Canada, a Toronto-based apparel company, initially hesitated to wade into the moment despite its patriotic product lines.
"But it really became, I think, a movement and we felt that as a Canadian brand who makes their products in Canada, we really did need to become part of the conversation in some way," said product and operations manager Alli Piccininni.
The company designed a grey fleece sweatshirt with "Lake Ontario" in navy, offered through preorder with 15 per cent of each purchase sent to Indspire, an Indigenous education charity. The sweater sold out "really, really quickly," Piccininni said.
Availability has dwindled to just a few sizes after a second round, so the company prepared a third batch shipping in December and a fourth featuring a new colourway scheduled to reach buyers before Christmas. The Lake Ontario sweater remains among its most popular releases.
"When customers get behind us and support us ... it's a really good feeling," Piccininni said.
The sales surge follows a broader conversation about Canada's reliance on U.S. technology platforms after a viral MapQuest campaign defending Lake Ontario's name. Nosy Mag reported in August that the campaign sparked debate over Canada's limited alternatives to dominant U.S. tech giants.
With files from The Canadian Press, CityNews and The Spec