Google Maps Quickly Renames Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’ in the US

Over the weekend, Google Maps hastily amended Lake Ontario, now displaying it as ‘Lake America’ in the US, with some Canadian services making the change as well. This change arrives only days after U.S. President Donald Trump issued his executive order on the matter.

On Thursday, President Trump issued an order to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America in retaliation for Canada’s ongoing trade feud with the US. As a result, Google updated its Google Maps platform to reflect the change in official government sources, including the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).

So, Google Maps now renders the change to Lake America for users in the US. The company moved quickly, much to the dismay of users online. This change is similar to when President Trump signed the executive order to change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. For most Canadians, Google Maps will still show Lake Ontario when searching for one of the five Great Lakes of North America.

“These updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country, and are starting to roll out now,” Google wrote in its post.

However, there are rare exceptions. Over the weekend, several websites for Canadian and Ontario entities began displaying Lake America on their maps. For instance, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario’s (LCBO’s) store locator, Hydro One’s outage map and GO Transit’s station finder all began rendering “Lake America.”

As reported by CBC, it appears as though these changes were made as an “error.” Speaking to the outlet, Hydro One states that it is “aware that Lake Ontario is being incorrectly labelled.” Metrolinx, the agency that owns GO Transit, also spoke to CBC on the matter. “We are actively reviewing our websites to make sure they all identify Lake Ontario by its correct name: Lake Ontario,” the company said.

Google Maps alternatives like Apple Maps and Waze have refrained from making any changes to Lake Ontario, even in the US. Although this may change under pressure from the US government, Apple and Waze have not folded to the changes in Trump’s flippant executive order.