Numerous Canadian websites, including those for the federal government, exhibited maps depicting Lake Ontario as Lake America on Sunday. This adjustment came after Google Maps announced the alteration to comply with a directive issued by U.S. President Donald Trump. Google explained in a post on its official website on Saturday that the modification was made following the U.S. government’s official renaming of the lake in its geographic database.
Even though Google stated that the change would impact only U.S. users, several Ontario and Canadian websites seemed to show Lake America on their maps. Entities such as Hydro One’s outage map, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) store locator, GO Transit’s station finder, and the federal government’s housing and infrastructure map were among those displaying Lake America.
Hydro One acknowledged the labeling error of Lake Ontario on its outage map, attributing it to a third-party mapping service. The utility mentioned that they are collaborating with their vendor to rectify the mistake promptly and restore the accurate geographic reference.
Metrolinx, a government agency in Ontario overseeing GO Transit, stated in an email to CBC News that they are addressing the issue by ensuring all their websites correctly identify Lake Ontario by its rightful name. Metrolinx also mentioned that they are in the process of deactivating the map function on the GO stations’ page where the inaccuracy occurred.
By Sunday afternoon, the GO Transit map in question had been disabled, and the LCBO map had been corrected to display Lake Ontario once again. In contrast, MapQuest, a U.S.-based online mapping service, declared that it would retain the lake’s original name. Apple has not made any public statements regarding this issue.
According to a statement by Google on Sunday, website developers embedding Google Maps on their sites can choose a region to localize the map, thereby determining how place names appear. The company clarified that if developers set their region to Canada, the map will display “Lake Ontario.”
Tech analyst and journalist Carmi Levy explained that despite being Canadian websites, platforms like Hydro One and the LCBO likely utilize Google’s application programming interface (API) to power their maps. Levy highlighted that APIs lack location awareness, leading maps powered by Google API to default to Lake America.
Levy emphasized that Google’s recommended solution for developers to localize their maps by selecting Canada, though straightforward, may not be universally implemented due to varying levels of technical knowledge. Consequently, he anticipates continued discrepancies until developers make the necessary adjustments.
Google Maps tailors its results based on a user’s location, ensuring that within Canada, Lake Ontario is displayed correctly, even if “Lake America” is searched. Nevertheless, Google has updated its search index globally, enabling “Lake America” to be searchable worldwide, with the lake’s original name, Lake Ontario, followed by Lake America in brackets for searches outside North America.
The incident underscores the significance of Canada not having its mapping equivalents or APIs, which heavily rely on American companies, resulting in a lack of digital sovereignty. Ontario’s Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement, Stephen Crawford, acknowledged the situation and confirmed that the provincial government is actively reviewing their websites to ensure accurate identification of Lake Ontario.