Ontario’s biggest power company ignites fury as outage map displays Lake America after Trump’s name change
Canadians were left furious as several of the country’s biggest companies had to apologize after they appeared to go along with Donald Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario to Lake America.
The fracas erupted Sunday as Google Maps announced their decision to rename the body of water on their platform for US users, to Trump’s delight.
Many sites with government backing, including Ontario’s biggest electrical provider, were forced to apologize after their outage maps showed the change to Lake America.
Hydro One issued a statement Sunday, blaming it on a third-party service they had outsourced their maps to.
‘We are aware that Lake Ontario is being incorrectly labeled on our outage map. The issue originates from a third-party mapping service,’ they said on social media.
‘We are working with our vendor to correct the issue as quickly as possible and restore the proper geographic reference. We regret the error and apologize for any confusion it has caused.’
Metrolinx, which runs the transit system in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, claimed it was a mistake in a response to a customer.
‘We are aware our maps are incorrectly displaying the name of Lake Ontario and are escalating with technical support,’ they wrote.
Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday, changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America
Ontario’s biggest electrical provider was forced to apologize after their outage maps showed the change to Lake America
Other sites, including Infrastructure Ontario and the LCBO also displayed the change. The Daily Mail has reached out to both for comment.
The province of Ontario has launched an investigation and promised a change as soon as possible.
‘Following recent changes by Google, we’re actively reviewing our websites to make sure they all identify Lake Ontario by its correct name: Lake Ontario,’ said Stephen Crawford, minister of public and business service delivery and procurement.
Canadians were furious at the mistake, given Hydro One is itself a Canadian based company.
‘Ahhh your vender is American. Better fix that soon Hydro One,’ wrote a Canadian customer.
‘Canadian companies should be sourcing Canadian vendors where possible,’ wrote another.
One Canadian used the mistake to call out Trump, writing: ‘Your mad king is completely unchecked and creating nothing but chaos for you and the rest of the free world.’
As of 9pm ET, the outage map reverted the label on the lake to its original name.
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, hit back at Trump on ABC News’ This Week but mostly expressed his confusion with the move, comparing it to a comedy sketch
A sign reading ‘Lake Ontario, Now and Always,’ unveiled by Ontario Premier Doug Ford at Fifty Point Conservation Area
Canadians continued to be outraged and baffled by Trump’s move with Ontario premier Doug Ford comparing it to a comedy sketch.
‘I just don’t see the purpose. It’s absolutely backwards,’ Ford told ABC News’ This Week.
‘It was like something out of Saturday Night Live when he signed a document saying ‘change to Lake America.’ No one’s going to call it Lake America. It’s been Lake Ontario for hundreds of years. It’s going to continue to be Lake Ontario.’
Ford said that the move, along with Trump’s hardline strategy on tariffs against Canadian goods, were ‘so, so disappointing.’
‘I love the US. I love the American people. Canadians love the American people. We differentiate between a great American people and the president,’ he said.
Trump, however, continued to double down on his anti-Canadian rhetoric in a pair of Truth Social posts Sunday.
‘I don’t want Canadian cars, I don’t want Canadian parts, I don’t want Canadian anything. They’ve been ripping us off for decades, and it’s going to stop,’ he said.
Trump called them ‘abusers’ and compared the goal of fixing economic relations with Canada to ‘stopping Iran.’
Trump shared on Sunday that he was delighted with the decision of Google Maps to accept his renaming on their platforms
‘They want to be treated like a State, but they aren’t one. I deal with the Leadership of many Countries, but I find Canada to be the worst. They are entitled no longer!’
He then encouraged Canadian companies that do business with the United States to move here ‘immediately.
‘Many of them are Companies that moved out years ago due to stupid U.S. Leadership. When you move back, there are no TARIFFS!’
Trump announced the renaming on Thursday, signing an executive order directing the Interior Department to adopt ‘Lake America’ as the body of water’s name for US federal purposes amid ongoing trade disputes with America’s northern neighbor.
The order does not compel Canada or any international organization to adopt the new name, and Canadian officials have spoken out against the move.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has clashed with Trump on a number of occasions, decried the move last week, rejecting the name change from Lake Ontario, pointing to the name’s indigenous roots from a Wendat word meaning ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is great.’
Doug Ford erected a giant ‘Lake Ontario’ sign on his side of America’s northern border in a show of protest over Trump’s move, posting up a message that read: ‘Lake Ontario. Now and Always’.
Google Maps made the switch from Lake Ontario’s name to Lake America for US users following an executive renaming order from Trump last week, and the president posted a screen grab of the change on his Truth Social account on Sunday.
In a statement, Google noted that the move, ‘does not have any impact on Canadian naming conventions or how the rest of the world refers to the lake.’
‘Those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario’ on Google Maps, ‘and those outside … the US and Canada will see both names,’ the tech giant added.
The company took a similar approach to Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to be the ‘Gulf of America’ earlier in his second term.
Trump also celebrated the name change with a post of an AI video of himself dancing next to a ‘Lake America’ sign.
Lake Ontario forms part of the international boundary between New York State and the Canadian province of Ontario.
It has been jointly managed under the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty for more than a century.
But when he signed the executive order on Thursday, Trump said he had contemplated the name change for a ‘long time.’
He then suggested he may not be finished tinkering with the map – joking that the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean could eventually find itself in his sights.
‘Actually, as you know, we took something called the Gulf of Mexico and we changed it, and now it’s very routinely the Gulf of America,’ Trump said last week.
‘So, if you think about it, we have a Gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean. So, maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific.’
