TORONTO — Maps on Ontario and federal websites labelled Lake Ontario as “Lake America” on Sunday, a day after Google said it would use the new U.S. name for American users only.The label appeared on the LCBO store locator, Hydro One’s outage map, Metrolinx and GO pages, Infrastructure Ontario listings, and a federal housing and infrastructure map. Some retail locators, including Loblaws, were reported showing the same text.Ontario Public and Business Service Delivery Minister Stephen Crawford said the sites “pull map data directly from Google Maps” and that Queen’s Park is reviewing them so they “identify Lake Ontario by its correct name: Lake Ontario.”Google’s own rule is narrower. After U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week, the U.S. Geographic Names Information System listed the lake as Lake America. Google said users in the United States will see that name, users in Canada will see Lake Ontario, and users elsewhere will see both..The Canadian pages did not follow that split. Google later said “Lake Ontario” displays when a developer sets the map region to Canada. If that setting is missing or defaults to the United States, an embedded map can serve the American label to someone in Ontario.Hydro One called it a third-party mapping error. Metrolinx disabled a GO stations map. The LCBO page was later corrected.The agencies did not rename the lake. They rented the map. Most public bodies do not run their own geographic systems. They embed Google, and Google’s labels follow Google’s databases.Trump’s order has no real force in Canadian law. Premier Doug Ford answered it with a shoreline sign reading “Lake Ontario. Now and Always.” Prime Minister Mark Carney said the lake is still Lake Ontario. None of that matters if a Crown website is still drawing tiles from an API that was never locked to Canada..Apple Maps had not adopted the U.S. name as of Sunday. MapQuest said it would not change it.Crawford’s review should list every Government of Ontario and federal page that uses the embed — and whether the region was ever set to Canada. Until that is fixed, the next Washington database update will show up again on a taxpayer site.
