Federal Sport Secretary Adam van Koeverden says Ottawa’s push to get more Canadians physically active is about more than producing elite athletes.

He says investment in sport can strengthen communities and the country at a time of increasing tensions with the United States.

Speaking Tuesday at the National Yacht Club in downtown Toronto, van Koeverden promoted the federal government’s investment in sport while visiting the Able Sail program supported through the Community Sport for All Initiative.

The former Olympic kayaker said the program is one of hundreds receiving federal support as part of Ottawa’s broader $1-billion commitment to sport, which the government has billed as an investment spanning “playground to podium.”

“Sport is our greatest nation builder,” van Koeverden said.

“Our athletes, whether they’re travelling to an Able Sail program in Portugal or Vancouver, they’re our greatest ambassadors. When our athletes travel, they represent Canada. They carry the maple leaf with us.”

Van Koeverden adeed that the benefits extend well beyond high-performance athletes, saying governments should be looking for ways to get children and families away from screens and into community recreation.

When Canadians “get more field time and ice time and pool time and time on the water rather than just screen time,” he said, “we’re all happier, healthier, more connected citizens.”

“As we build Canada strong, we also want to build Canada physically active at the same time,” he said.

The comments come as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has increasingly framed investments in Canadian institutions and infrastructure through a nation-building lens amid the ongoing deterioration in Canada-U.S. relations.

That political backdrop followed van Koeverden onto the water Tuesday.

Asked about U.S. President Donald Trump’s attempt to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” he quickly rejected the idea.

“It’s Lake Ontario. It’s Lake Ontario today,” he said.

“It’s been Lake Ontario longer than the province of Ontario has existed. It’s been Lake Ontario for longer than Canada has been a country, and certainly longer than the United States has had a president or Canada has had a prime minister.”

Van Koeverden said that the prospect of changing the lake’s name “absurd.”

“Lake Ontario is where we get our drinking water from. It’s where we do a lot of the activities that we love. It’s a huge part of our recreational lives,” he said.

Whether Canadians are canoeing, kayaking, swimming, fishing or sailing, van Koeverden said access to the water should be broadly available.

He also linked outdoor sport with environmental stewardship, saying that people who spend time on lakes and waterways are more likely to want to protect them.

“When people get out on the water, they become natural stewards of the environment. They want to protect what they enjoy,” he said. “That’s part and parcel of why we’re investing in outdoor sport.”

Tuesday’s visit focused in particular on Able Sail, an adaptive sailing program designed to make the sport accessible to people with disabilities.

Van Koeverden said the program shows how federal sport spending can reach beyond traditional competitive athletics, pointing to both accessibility and Canadian innovation being incorporated into the initiative.

For van Koeverden, who won four Olympic medals during his kayaking career before entering federal politics, the two goals are closely connected: creating opportunities for Canadians to participate at the community level while supporting athletes who carry the Canadian flag internationally.

And amid an increasingly combative relationship with Washington, van Koeverden said that this role has taken on additional significance.

When Canadian athletes compete abroad, he said, “they represent us.”