By Emily Stonehouse

I spent the past week out of town.

While I will be the first to fly the flag of the Haliburton Highlands, my husband and I realized it had been years since we had taken any trips across the borders. And no, I don’t mean hopping and skipping between Minden and Haliburton.

We landed on P.E.I. as our destination of choice. A first major vacation for this blended and chosen family, and it was truly beautiful. Life changing in all the right ways.

At the beginning of the week, my brother found an article, chuckling as he read through it before sharing with us over scrambled eggs and hot coffee.

“Trump wants to change Lake Ontario to Lake America,” he laughed.

We all did. Because, really, how could he do such a thing? The world isn’t run through temper tantrums and fist pounding. That’s how children operate, until they are given the tools to manage their emotions.

So, to compare Trump to a child having a tantrum would be highly offensive to the child.

By the end of the week, he did it.

And instead of laughter, our blended and chosen family felt pain. A deep ache. A question, a worry, a wonder for tomorrow, as we watched our own children, laughing and splashing in the ocean.

What can’t this man do, via temper tantrums and fist pounding? When will he stop? Who will stop him?

We sat in this sadness for a while. Until the red sands from the castle on the beach started to crumble, damp little hands adding seashells to the miniature doorways.

Normally, I’d say we should leave politics off the table during a family vacation. But this isn’t politics. This is personal. It’s hurtful, corrupt, manipulative bullying from a man with an ego the size of the continent.

I am going to give credit to Mark Carney, who held his ground not only during trade negotiations, but when it came to the battle of Lake Ontario. “The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big,’” Carney wrote on social media, noting that the name had been used for more than 400 years – predating Canadian Confederation and the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

“We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms,” he said. “Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always.”

It feels good to have someone in your corner. I watched a snippet of a Blue Rodeo concert this past week, where the band sang their Canadian anthem, Hasn’t Hit Me Yet. When they got to the iconic bit in the middle, belting out Out in the middle, of Lake Ontario, the crowd went wild.

As Canadians, we feel proud of who we are. There is a time and a place for renaming pieces of our history, yes, but to be coerced to change through bullying is clearly something our country won’t tolerate.

And as I sat on the red sands this past week, thinking about home, here, there, and everywhere, question, worry, and wonder abound, I felt a deep pride in this place we all share. And whether it be on a micro or a macro scale, small towns or whole countries, we will do our best, to stand up to bullies.