Trump pushes to rename Lake Ontario 'Lake America' on US maps
Following the collapse of US-Canada trade talks, President Trump signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America on official US maps, with Google complying while other services refuse.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday directing that Lake Ontario be renamed Lake America on US government maps. The move follows the breakdown of trade negotiations between the United States and Canada.
The order instructs Interior Secretary Burgum to "take all appropriate actions" to carry out the renaming, including updating the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), the official US government map database.
Google complies
Google said in a statement on Saturday that its maps will display the name Lake America for users in the United States in order to comply with GNIS. Users in Canada will continue to see the lake labelled Lake Ontario, while users elsewhere in the world will see it displayed as "Lake Ontario (Lake America)".
Not everyone is on board
Not all mapping providers are following suit. MapQuest, the American web mapping service launched in 1996, said in a brief Facebook post on Friday that it would not be changing the name. The company also released a tool letting users rename the lake to anything they like and share the result. Following its refusal to change the name, MapQuest's app climbed to the top of the free app charts on Canada's Apple App Store by Monday morning.
Canadian pushback
Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a large sign by the lakeshore on Saturday reading "Lake Ontario Now and Always" in both English and French, Canada's two official languages. Speaking to American television host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Ford said no one would call it Lake America, noting the lake has been known as Lake Ontario for hundreds of years and would remain so.
