Ontario disappears from Canadian maps, replaced by “Lake America”

Lake Ontario briefly became “Lake America” on some Canadian websites, including a Go Transit map, after Google Maps adopted the name ordered by US President Donald Trump for American users.

The change appeared on some government and provincial websites in Canada because they rely on Google Maps’ programming interface. That system does not distinguish between the nationality of the website using it, CBC reported. At least some of the affected sites had restored the name Lake Ontario by Sunday evening local time.

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unfortunate

Trump’s order applies to the Geographic Names Information System, which governs naming practices on official US maps. Google said the decision does not affect names used in Canada or elsewhere in the world. Ontario electricity company Hydro One called the incident “unfortunate” and attributed it to “a change to a third-party mapping service.”

Lake Ontario is one of North America’s Great Lakes and lies along the US-Canada border, between Ontario and New York state. Toronto sits on its Canadian shore. The naming dispute came as relations between the two countries worsened after trade talks collapsed, followed by US tariffs on Canada and Canadian retaliatory tariffs. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the lake would continue to be called Lake Ontario in Canada.

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a change to a third-party mapping service