Google Maps has renamed Lake Ontario as Lake America days after President Trump signed an executive order calling for the change last week amid a U.S. trade war with Canada.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford denounced the move Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” calling it “like something out of ‘Saturday Night Live.’”
Mr. Ford urged the United States to negotiate a deal to end the impasse and the two nations to stop attacking each other.
“No one’s going to call it Lake of America. It’s been Lake Ontario for hundreds of years. It’s going to continue being Lake Ontario, and it’s just so, so disappointing because I love the U.S., I love the American people. Canadians love the American people. We differentiate between the great American people and the president,” Mr. Ford said.
Mr. Trump on Thursday signed an executive order calling for the renaming. A giant poster at the Oval Office signing ceremony read “Making the Great Lakes even greater.”
“We’ve notified all the various people that you need to notify,” the president said. “This is official, effective immediately.”
Lake Ontario, the smallest of the five Great Lakes, is located between the New York and Ontario.
The lake’s surface area is split nearly evenly — 52% Canada and 48% U.S. But White House staff secretary Ben Moss said most of the lake’s volume is in the American half and its deepest parts are on the U.S. side.
Mr. Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America on Jan. 20, 2025, the day he began his second term.
While Google Maps followed the president’s directive on Lake Ontario’s renaming, Apple Maps hasn’t changed the name.
• Tom Howell contributed to this report.
