Apple Maps changes Lake Ontario to 'Lake America'
· Toronto Sun
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Evidently Apple agrees that it’s “Lake America” now.
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Tech giant Apple has changed the name of Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’ on the U.S. web version of its Apple Maps after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order renaming the Great Lake.
Apple follows Alphabet , which changed the name of the lake on Google Maps for U.S. users. Its move comes shortly after Trump contacted the company directly over the renaming, according to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.
“So I’m sure that we may be seeing that change coming up, coming up soon, to Lake America,” Burgum told Fox Business on Monday, a day before Apple made the change.
Trade tensions
Trump signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario ‘Lake America’ last Thursday, days after trade deal talks between Canada and the U.S. failed. Trump imposed tough new tariffs on Canadian goods shortly thereafter. Canada has pledged $27.6 billion in retaliatory tariffs on products such as steel, clothing, smartphones, seafood products, kitchen appliances and cheese curds. Those tariffs are set to take effect next week on Sept. 8.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said that Canada has no interest in renaming Lake Ontario, saying on social media that it will be known as Lake Ontario “now and always.”
Stays the same for Canadians
Google has said the name Lake Ontario will remain on its maps for Canadians, but American users will see ‘Lake America’ to reflect “name changes in official government sources.”
“The U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has formally changed the name for ‘Lake Ontario’ to ‘Lake America’ in the United States,” Google said.
Slight embarrassment
There was a small snafu over the weekend on a government website featuring Trump’s new name for Lake Ontario. Screenshots were posted online of a map maintained by Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada showing Lake Ontario renamed as ‘Lake America.’ The map was corrected by Monday.