Executive Order Envisions Renaming of Lake Ontario as “Lake America”
The president signed an executive order Thursday aimed at changing the designation of Lake Ontario to Lake America, a step taken after the collapse of trade negotiations between Canada and the United States.
The directive requires Governor Burgum to institute all necessary measures to rename the waterway, including updates to the Geography Names Information System (GNIS), the official U.S. government mapping repository.
In response, Google disclosed that its mapping service will employ the “Lake America” label for U.S. users to conform with the revised GNIS entry.
Residents in Canada will continue to view the lake under its historic name, whereas the global audience will encounter the combined label “Lake Ontario (Lake America)”.
Not all cartography providers are affected; MapQuest, an American freemium mapping platform launched in 1996, commented via a brief Facebook post that it was unconcerned with modifying the lake’s name.
The firm further released a customizing tool allowing users to rename the feature to any title they favor and share their personalized labels.
Following the decision not to alter the name, MapQuest quickly rose to the number‑one position among free applications by download rank on the Canadian App Store earlier Monday.
Meanwhile, Ontario’s premier unveiled a prominent lakeside sign displaying “Lake Ontario — Now and Always”, presented in both English and Canada’s official languages.
“No one’s ever going to call it the Lake of America,” Ford declared to television host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. “It has long been known as Lake Ontario and will remain so.”
Four of the Great Lakes—namely Ontario, Huron, Michigan and Erie—derive their names from indigenous languages.
