TORONTO — Google on Saturday began rolling out a change to its Maps application that displays Lake Ontario as "Lake America" for users in the United States, the first concrete implementation of an executive order President Trump signed last week amid an escalating tariff war with Canada. Earlier Saturday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a 24-by-12-foot sign on the Canadian shore near Grimsby reading "Lake Ontario. Now and Always."
The map change and the billboard land against a widening trade dispute. Washington has imposed 50 percent tariffs on hundreds of Canadian goods, and Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced matching duties of up to 50 percent on U.S. goods starting next month.
The Mountain View, California-based technology company said Canadian users will continue to see "Lake Ontario," and users outside both countries will see both names. "These updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country, and are starting to roll out now," Google said in a Saturday blog post.
Split by border
Lake Ontario, which sits between the Canadian province and New York state, is the first international body of water Google has split by user location since it applied the same treatment to the Gulf of Mexico after Trump's 2025 order renaming it the "Gulf of America." Google said the change tracks names in the U.S. Geographic Names Information System, which Trump directed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to update through the executive order.
Ford's answer
Ford, wearing a Team Canada soccer jersey, said at the unveiling that the original name would "outlast the president" and framed Trump's action as retaliation for Canada "standing up for ourselves." The sign stands approximately 18 feet high.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew compared Trump to an aging rock band attempting to revive old hits, calling the renaming efforts "not his best work." Wendat Nation Grand Chief Pierre Picard condemned the change as erasing Indigenous history; the name Lake Ontario derives from the Huron word "oniatarí:io," meaning "lake of shining waters."
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said, "New York won't be calling it that." Trump, in a Sunday post, called Canada "the worst" and said Canadian leaders have been "ripping us off for decades."
Silence from the principals
The White House, Carney's office and Ford's office had not commented on Google's rollout by Sunday, PBS NewsHour reported. No right-leaning U.S. outlet in today's reporting characterized the mapmaker's decision. Trump has previously dismissed Ford's comments as "bluster" and mocked him as the "less charismatic" Ford brother.
Interior has 30 days from Thursday's order to enter the change into the federal repository of place names, a deadline that would fall in late September.