TORONTO — Google Maps now labels Lake Ontario as “Lake America” for users in the United States, two days after President Donald Trump ordered the change in official U.S. records.Google said Saturday it follows the U.S. Geographic Names Information System. Americans see Lake America. Canadians still see Lake Ontario. Users outside both countries see both names. The company used the same split when it adopted “Gulf of America” last year.Trump signed the order Thursday amid a trade fight with Ottawa. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Board on Geographic Names to update the database, calling the lake a U.S. economic asset. The order does not bind Canada.Prime Minister Mark Carney said the name is more than 400 years old, from the Wendat word Ontari’io, and predates both Confederation and the American Declaration of Independence. “Now and always,” he said..Trump signs order renaming Lake Ontario ‘Lake America’ in U.S..Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a bilingual lakeside sign Saturday reading “Lake Ontario: Now and Always.” On ABC’s This Week he compared the rename to a Saturday Night Live sketch. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said, “Google is wrong.”Apple Maps and Bing had not yet flipped the label as of Sunday. MapQuest said it would not. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said her state would not use the new name.
