Republican lawmaker wants to rename Lake Erie to Lake Pennsylvania | CBC News

David Maloney's proposal comes on heels of Trump's order to change name of Lake Ontario

A republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives wants to change the name of another Great Lake.

In a statement put forward earlier this week, Maloney said it’s about the lake’s “modern identity,” and that he’s preparing a resolution to put before the U.S. House of Representatives — urging the president, Congress and the U.S. Secretary of the Interior to invoke the change.

Trevor Jones is the MPP for Chatham-Kent—Leamington in Ontario. A portion of his riding stretches along the Lake Erie shoreline. When contacted by CBC News, his office said he would not be providing any comment about the proposal at this time.

Maloney says Ohio already has plenty of shoreline, while New York has two Great Lakes — with Canada having four others. Michigan is the fourth state that touches Lake Erie.

He says renaming places with strong historical significance, such as the Great Lakes, serves to break those connections.

“Names are more than just labels on a map, they connect us to place and history,” added Drouillard, who’s also with the university’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research (GLIER).

He says similar to Lake Ontario, Lake Erie’s name has its roots in First Nation naming conventions that predates both the U.S. and Canada.

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"The Lake Erie Canal was the first major inter-basin diversion connecting Lake Erie to the Hudson River and the New York City Port on the Atlantic Ocean. Would renaming Lake Erie necessitate renaming this historical canal entirely enclosed in a different state?”

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