It already seems to have become a custom. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, unilaterally announces the change of name of a geographical feature that his country shares with one of its neighbors. The country in question protests and says that it will continue using the name it has had for centuries and that until the Republican's arrival in the White House no one had discussed. A few days later, Google announces that its maps application will adapt to Trump's wishes. It happened in January of last year with the Gulf of Mexico (baptized by the White House as the Gulf of America) and has now happened with Lake Ontario (converted into Lake America).
This Sunday, when entering the Google Maps application from New York, there was no longer a trace of Lake Ontario.
The technology company's decision comes after Trump signed last Thursday before the cameras an executive order to change the official name within the United States of Lake Ontario, the smallest of the five Great Lakes that separate the two countries. The Republican president made this decision in retaliation for the trade war in which the two neighbors, traditional allies until Trump's arrival in the White House, are facing each other.
The order affects the United States Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), which establishes the naming of the country's official maps. But it has no effect on how the rest of the world refers to landforms.
“As we update Google Maps to reflect name changes from official government sources – such as the GNIS in the case of the United States – people using Maps in the United States will see Lake America, those in Canada will continue to see Lake Ontario, and those outside of both countries will see both names,” Google said in a blog post published this Saturday. The company adds that this decision follows its policy for names that vary from country to country, and is effective immediately.
Trump's decision is part of a confrontation with his neighbor that led Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to declare that the country was at war (trade, that is). Carney immediately reacted to Trump's announcement by assuring that the name of Lake Ontario has more than 400 years of history, and therefore predates both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. "We know that the United States is changing: its trade relations, its foreign policies, its national monuments, its hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario: yesterday, today and forever," he wrote on his X account.
Much more prosaic, Trump has reacted with videos posted on his social networks generated by artificial intelligence in which a battalion of ducks with the characteristic toupee of the president of the United States and armed with shotguns are seen parading around the lake. Or, in another video, the Republican himself who kicks off a sign with the name of Lake Ontario to put up a new one with the name he has pulled out of his sleeve. In another post on his Truth account, Trump shows a Google Maps image with the new name.
The governor of New York, Democrat Kathy Hochul, has made it clear that she does not plan to use the new name in her State, which shares a long border with Canada. As a result, Trump has been sending messages against Hochul for days.
For his part, the Premier of the province of Ontario, Doug Ford, presented a large sign on Saturday on the shores of the lake with the bilingual inscription in French and English: “Lake Ontario: now and always.” “President Trump can call it whatever he wants, but I assure you the rest of the world will always call it Lake Ontario,” Ford said.
