“Lake America” designations are now visible on Google Maps, and President Donald Trump of the United States is urging Apple to do the same by including the navigation app as a preinstalled feature on every iPhone.
Experts in the technology field point out a concerning reality for many Canadian consumers and businesses: they are essentially “locked in” to these platforms owned by the U.S., with very few viable alternatives from other countries.
Anne Pasek, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Media, Culture, and the Environment at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, expressed, “Canadians are significantly impacted by American tech monopolies, a fact that often goes unnoticed until controversies arise.”
“Our digital presence, along with many aspects of our lives stemming from it, falls under the jurisdiction of American corporations and thus, American laws,” she added.
Several Canadian websites, including those of the federal government, exhibited maps featuring Lake Ontario renamed as Lake America on August 30, following the announcement by Google Maps to comply with an executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump. While Google stated that the adjustment would only affect U.S. users, some Canadian sites utilizing third-party protocols connected to Google’s U.S. API found themselves impacted by the alteration.
Multiple Canadian websites, including federal government platforms and major banks in the country, have recently showcased maps where Lake Ontario is labeled as Lake America.
These modifications come in response to an executive order from Trump instructing the U.S. federal government to officially rename one of the Great Lakes that separates the two nations amid escalating trade tensions.
Google implemented the change for U.S. users and introduced an option for non-American websites to display the original label “Lake Ontario” by localizing their maps and setting their region to Canada.
“These updates align with our established policy for bodies of water with varying names across countries,” the company confirmed on Saturday.
U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum informed Fox Business on Monday that Trump reached out to Apple, requesting the alteration of Lake Ontario to Lake America on its applications. Apple has not responded to several inquiries for comments from CBC News.
In addition to offering real-time navigation to millions of users, mapping tools from U.S. tech giants are intricately integrated into the websites and operations of numerous Canadian businesses.
They supply operating hours, contact details, reviews, and other crucial information. Behind the scenes, they facilitate address auto-completion on e-commerce sites and enable rideshare and food-delivery applications to monitor traffic and road conditions.
“There is a noticeable monopoly at play,” Pasek noted. “Individuals are heavily reliant on these platforms.”
Could Trump be seeking technology-based ‘pressure points’ against Canada?
Emily Osborne, a policy research associate at the Canadian Shield Institute, a Toronto-based think-tank founded by BlackBerry co-founder Jim Balsillie to modernize public policy related
