As the outrage continues over U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename Lake Ontario, users logging on to Barrie Transit’s website were surprised to see that the system’s interactive map that details Barrie transit routes displayed the name Lake America instead of Lake Ontario. That has now been corrected.
On Sunday August 30th, Google Maps said it had formally changed the name of the cross-border lake to Lake America for U.S. users while Canadians will continue to see Lake Ontario.
However, businesses like Hydro One displayed Lake America on its mapping system. The company posted a statement to social media saying, “We are aware that Lake Ontario is being incorrectly labeled on our outage map. The issue originates from a third-party mapping service. We are working with our vendor to correct the issue as quickly as possible and restore the proper geographic reference. We regret the error and apologize for any confusion it has caused.”
Metrolinx, the provincial agency that runs GO Transit, was also impacted but disabled the map on its GO stations page where the label appeared. Several banks and retail stores also had to disable their mapping systems until the problem could be fixed.
President Trump renamed the lake last week after the collapse of trade and tariff negotiations with Canada. Not surprisingly, the order was met by outrage by Canadian citizens and political leaders. On Friday, August 28th, Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a sign in Grimsby that reads ‘Lake Ontario, now and always.’ In a Facebook video, Ford stated, “Long before President Trump, this lake was called Lake Ontario, and long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario.”
