“Lake America” labels are now visible on Google Maps, and U.S. President Donald Trump is urging Apple to implement similar changes on its navigation app that comes preloaded on every iPhone.
Experts in the tech sector indicate that this scenario underscores a troubling reality for numerous Canadian consumers and businesses: they find themselves “locked in” to these American-owned platforms, with few, if any, practical alternatives from non-U.S. sources.
“Canadians are often under the influence of American tech monopolies, and this fact is frequently overlooked until controversies arise,” remarked Anne Pasek, Canada Research Chair in Media, Culture and the Environment at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.
“Much of our digital existence, along with various aspects of our lives, is governed by American companies and, by extension, American regulations.”
On August 30, several Canadian websites, including those of the federal government, featured maps that listed Lake Ontario as Lake America, following a change announced by Google Maps to comply with an executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump. Google clarified that the alteration was intended for U.S. users only, but some Canadian sites utilizing third-party protocols linked to Google’s U.S. API inadvertently reflected this change.
Numerous Canadian sites, encompassing federal government platforms and major banks, have recently shown maps that refer to Lake Ontario as Lake America.
These alterations are a result of 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 this change for its U.S. users and offered non-American websites the option to display the label “Lake Ontario” by adjusting their maps and setting their region to Canada.
“These modifications are in line with our established policy for bodies of water with differing names across countries,” the company stated on Saturday.
U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum informed Fox Business on Monday that Trump had reached out to Apple, requesting that the name Lake Ontario be altered to Lake America on its applications. Apple has yet to respond to multiple inquiries from CBC News for comments.
In addition to providing real-time navigation for millions, mapping technologies from U.S. tech companies are integrated into the online platforms and operations of numerous Canadian businesses.
These services supply operational hours, contact details, reviews, and other essential information. Behind the scenes, they facilitate e-commerce sites in auto-filling addresses and aid rideshare and food delivery apps in tracking traffic and roadwork.
“There is a distinct monopoly at play,” Pasek remarked. “People are essentially trapped.”
Will Trump pursue tech-related ‘choke points’ against Canada?
Emily Osborne, a policy research associate at the Canadian Shield Institute, noted that this Toronto-based think tank was established by BlackBerry co-founder Jim Balsillie to modernize technology and national security policies while protecting Canadian intellectual property.
“We depend on American firms like Google and Apple for various digital services and products online, with navigation being a key area,” Osborne explained.
For basic navigation, she pointed to Dutch firms TomTom and HERE Technologies as possible substitutes for Google and Apple.
Until recently, Canada had its own homegrown option. Avenza Systems, based in Toronto, was purchased by Maine’s Blue Marble Geographics in a deal finalized in April.
If tensions between Canada and the U.S. escalate further, Osborne is concerned that the Trump administration might seek additional tech-related “choke points” to exert pressure on Canada. She highlighted payment processing and cloud storage as specific areas of concern.
“Consider the AWS (Amazon Web Services) outage that occurred last fall. A multitude of Canadian businesses were impacted by that event,” Osborne stated.
Osborne emphasized that this outage illustrates the vulnerability of Canadian businesses reliant on U.S.-owned digital infrastructure, particularly if access were to be restricted by governmental directives.
“Canadian enterprises depend on Visa and MasterCard for credit card transactions. We lack a Canadian alternative in that arena,” she concluded.