Some Ontario government, business websites show ‘Lake America’ on maps

Following Ontario Premier Doug Ford's proclamation that Lake Ontario is "now and forever" Lake America, some government and business websites in the province displayed the name change on their mapping applications. Stephen Crawford, the minister of public and business service delivery and procurement, confirmed the issue on X, stating that some websites pull map data directly from Google Maps.

Upon noticing the discrepancy, Google Maps revealed that it updates its maps to reflect name changes from official government sources, including the U.S. Geographic Names Information Service (GNIS). The GNIS formally changed Lake Ontario to "Lake America" in recent days. As a result, Google Maps displays "Lake America" for users in the U.S., while users in Canada and other countries will see "Lake Ontario."

Some affected websites include Hydro One's outage map, Metrolinx's mapping applications, Infrastructure Ontario's property listings, and the LCBO's store locator. Hydro One acknowledged the error, stating that the issue originates from a third-party mapping service and that they are working with their vendor to correct it. Google Maps holds copyright and data provider status for each map on these websites.

This is not the first time Trump has changed a location's name, as he previously named the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.