Google updates maps to show Lake America in the U.S. — but Canadians are now seeing it, too

This screenshot of the Government of Canada's website shows its housing and infrastructure project map with Lake Ontario named Lake America. (CBC)

Justin Li, Kevin Maimann · CBC News with files from Alexandre Silberman and The Canadian Press

Some Canadian websites, including for the federal government, displayed maps with Lake Ontario renamed as Lake America on Sunday, a day after Google Maps announced the change to align with an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The search giant said in a Saturday post on its corporate website that it made the change because the U.S. government's geographic names database has formally renamed the lake.

Google said the change would only affect U.S. users, but a number of websites for Ontario and Canadian entities appeared to display Lake America on maps.

Among them were Hydro One's outage map, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario's (LCBO's) store locator, GO Transit's station finder and the federal government's housing and infrastructure map.

We are aware that Lake Ontario is being incorrectly labeled on our outage map, a spokesperson told CBC News in an email, adding that Hydro One regrets the error.

The issue originates from a third-party mapping service, the utility said.

We are working with our vendor to correct the issue as quickly as possible and restore the proper geographic reference.

Metrolinx, an Ontario government agency that owns GO Transit, said in a separate email to CBC News that it is aware of the issue.

We are actively reviewing our websites to make sure they all identify Lake Ontario by its correct name: Lake Ontario, Metrolinx said. We are in the process of disabling the map function on the GO stations' page where this occurred.

By late afternoon on Sunday, the GO Transit map in question had been disabled, and the LCBO map had been changed to again show Lake Ontario.

MapQuest, a U.S. online mapping service, has posted on social media that it would not change the lake's name, while Apple has not publicly commented on the matter.

In a statement Sunday night, Google said website developers who embed Google Maps on their sites can select a region to localize the map. That determines how place names are displayed on sites, the company said.

"'Lake Ontario' will show when developers have set (new window) their region to Canada," the statement said.

APIs behind the confusion: tech expert

Tech analyst and journalist Carmi Levy said although websites like Hydro One's and the LCBO's are Canadian, their maps are likely powered by Google's application programming interface (API).

APIs are not location-aware, so all maps powered by Google API have switched to Lake America.

Even if it's a government website or a government app or government digital service, it will show as Lake America in Canada because we're stuck using an American technology to power it under the surface, Levy told CBC News.

Companies and government organizations use third-party APIs rather than developing their own mapping software.

Google Maps itself provides results based on a user's location, so people within Canada's borders should still see Lake Ontario — even if they type Lake America.

Levy said Google has updated its search index globally, so that Lake America is now searchable no matter where you live.

On Sunday evening, Google's pin — a red, teardrop-shaped marker — was showing up as Lake America in at least some Canadian searches when either name was typed in the search bar. Zoomed in closer, however, the map still said Lake Ontario.

The name change highlights the cost of Canada not having its own Google Maps equivalent or mapping APIs, Levy said, leaving a huge portion of online activity powered and collected by American companies.

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In many cases, that data is sitting on an American server. I'm screwed if the government decides to put limits on that or starts to scrape that data for whatever purpose, wants to use it against me the next time I decide to cross the border, Levy said.

The fact that we aren't more digitally sovereign, we are today seeing a very high-profile example of what that costs us as Canadians.

Stephen Crawford, Ontario's minister of public and business service delivery and procurement, acknowledged the issue on social media and said the provincial government is actively reviewing our websites to make sure they identify Lake Ontario as such.

Appearing on ABC's This Week program on Sunday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the name change won't stick, despite Trump signing the executive order on Thursday.

"It was like something out of Saturday Night Live when [Trump] signed a document saying change it to Lake America," Ford said.

No one's going to call it Lake of America. It's been Lake Ontario for hundreds of years. It's going to continue being Lake Ontario.

On Saturday, Ford unveiled a large sign in Winona, Ont., a small community in the eastern part of Hamilton, that says, Lake Ontario Now and Always.

WATCH | Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveils new sign:

'Lake Ontario Now and Always': Ford unveils new sign

Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a new 'Lake Ontario' sign Saturday in Winona, a small lakeside community on the outskirts of Hamilton. This comes after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to change the name of the body of water to 'Lake America.'

Also on Saturday, Trump posted a video rendered by artificial intelligence where he replaces a Lake Ontario sign with another that reads Welcome to Lake America, then dances to the song YMCA song by the Village People.

Prime Minister Mark Carney responded to Trump's bid to rename the lake in a social media post on Thursday. Carney said Canadians know Lake Ontario will always be known by its original name, then, now and always.

Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes, is located between Ontario and New York. The Canadian province is named after the lake.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said after Trump signed his order that her state won't call it Lake America.

Tensions between the two countries have escalated since trade talks fell apart on Aug. 21.

Both countries have accused each other of implementing last-minute changes to a proposed interim trade deal.

On Tuesday, the federal government unveiled upwards of $27 billion in retaliatory measures, set to kick in on Sept. 8, in response to new U.S. tariffs.

WATCH | Ford softens trade war message on American TV:

Doug Ford softens trade war message on U.S. TV

A day after hurling insults at U.S. President Donald Trump, Ontario Premier Doug Ford took a more measured approach while discussing the trade war during appearances on American TV. Meanwhile, Canadian officials rebuffed Trump’s threat to change Lake Ontario’s name to Lake America.

Trump first threatened to rename the body of water during an escalating war of words with Ontario's premier.

Ford had called the president a bully and a loser on Aug. 24, while Trump said the premier was a less charismatic and less intelligent version of his late brother Rob Ford.

The premier said during his ABC appearance on Sunday that things got heated between Trump and himself, but you've eventually got to stand up to someone who just continuously attacks our country and insults our country.

It's unfortunate that he stoops down to that level and unfortunately I did that day, Ford said, adding he wants to see both sides return their focus to advancing a mutually beneficial free-trade deal.

Trump signed a similar executive order last year to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

The orders apply only to U.S. federal documents and geographic services, but some online map services have since called it the Gulf of America. Most major news organizations in the U.S. and internationally continue to call it the Gulf of Mexico.