Washington (GNP): Apple has renamed Lake Ontario as Lake America on its Maps app for users based in the United States, following an executive order from President Donald Trump issued amid an ongoing trade dispute between Washington and Canada. Users in Canada will continue to see the lake displayed as Lake Ontario.
The change follows Trump’s executive order to rename the lake after trade talks between the United States and Canada collapsed late last month, a breakdown that led Washington to impose new 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods.
US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Apple was specifically urged to update the name on its Maps platform to comply with the order. Google made a similar change for its US-based users in recent days, a move that drew backlash on social media.
Canada has responded to the tariffs by pledging “dollar for dollar” counter-tariffs. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s administration had already withdrawn from the trade negotiations, citing what his office described as unacceptable demands, with Carney telling the Trump administration to “start being serious” before talks could resume.
Under the executive order, the US Department of the Interior has 30 days to formally update the name with the Geographic Names Information Service, the official US database of place names. Trump has also shared AI-generated videos on social media depicting him replacing a Lake Ontario sign with one reading “Welcome to Lake America.”
In response, Canada installed a new sign at the lake reading “Lake Ontario. Now and Always,” with Ontario Premier Doug Ford saying the sign was meant to remind people that the lake remains Lake Ontario, now and forever.
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Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes and sits on the border between the Canadian province of Ontario and the US state of New York. Its name, along with those of Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and Lake Erie, derives from indigenous words, while Lake Superior takes its name from an anglicised French term.
Not all mapping platforms have adopted the change. MapQuest said in a social media post that it would not be changing the lake’s name, a stance that coincided with the platform rising to the top of the most-downloaded free apps on the Canadian Apple App Store this week.
Google, which changed the name on its own Maps service last week, said the update was made to reflect changes in official government sources.
The company made a similar change in 2025 when it renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America for US users following a separate Trump declaration, a move that led Mexico to sue Google over the renaming. Apple also updated the Gulf of Mexico’s name to Gulf of America on its Maps service for US users at that time.
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Doug Ford said, “Just in case President Trump or anyone else forgets, it’s Lake Ontario, now and forever.”
