WASHINGTON: Google redesignated Lake Ontario as “Lake America” on maps seen by US customers Sunday (Aug 30) after President Donald Trump announced he was renaming the body of water, with a Canadian official slamming the cross-border tensions as “completely backwards.”
Folks in Canada will nonetheless see Lake Ontario, the Indigenous-rooted title used for the lake for the reason that seventeenth century, on their gadgets and computer systems, the US-based tech big stated.
The shock nomenclatural spat erupted as the newest ingredient of Trump’s “America First” narrative, with longtime allies america and Canada ramping up a commerce warfare that has seen Washington and Ottawa slap tit-for-tat tariffs on one another.
Apple’s Maps app, which comes preinstalled on all iPhones, makes no point out of “Lake America” on its maps as of Sunday morning.
Google stated it made its change in step with the US Geographic Names Data System (GNIS), the official federal database for geographic names.
“Since we replace Google Maps to replicate title adjustments in official authorities sources, which is GNIS for the US, folks utilizing Maps within the US will see ‘Lake America,’ these in Canada will proceed to see ‘Lake Ontario,’ and people outdoors of the US and Canada will see each names,” Google stated on its weblog.
GULF OF AMERICA
The change mirrors Trump’s unilateral alteration of the title of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in January 2025 – a transfer Mexico has additionally rejected.
Ontario is the smallest by floor space of the 5 Nice Lakes, which straddle the Canada-US border between Ontario province and the US state of New York.
The province’s premier, Doug Ford, supplied contemporary criticism on Sunday of the commerce dispute and Trump’s lake-name change.
“It is completely backwards. It was like one thing out of (US comedy TV present) ‘Saturday Evening Stay’ when he signed a doc saying – modified to ‘Lake America.’ Nobody’s going to name it Lake of America,” Ford informed ABC discuss present “This Week.”
“It is simply so disappointing.”
