“Lake America” labels are now available on Google Maps, and U.S. President Donald Trump is urging Apple to implement similar changes in the navigation app that comes preloaded on every iPhone.
Experts in technology indicate that this scenario underscores a troubling truth for numerous Canadian consumers and businesses: they are essentially “locked in” to platforms owned by U.S. companies, with limited or no viable alternatives from non-American sources.
“Canadians indeed exist under the dominance of American tech monopolies, and we often overlook this reality until controversies arise,” remarked Anne Pasek, a Canada Research Chair in Media, Culture, and the Environment at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.
“Much of our digital existence, along with many aspects of our lives that stem from it, falls under the control of American companies, and thus American laws govern them.”
On August 30, some Canadian websites, including those of the federal government, showcased maps where Lake Ontario was labeled as Lake America, following Google’s announcement of this change in response to an executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump. Although Google indicated that the adjustment would only affect U.S. users, some Canadian sites using third-party protocols connected to Google’s U.S. API were inadvertently affected.
Recently, several Canadian websites, including those belonging to the federal government and major banks, have shown maps that renamed Lake Ontario to Lake America.
This alteration came after an executive order from Trump mandating the U.S. federal government to officially change the name of one of the Great Lakes that separates the two nations amid escalating trade tensions.
Google implemented this change for U.S. users and provided an option for non-American websites to show the label “Lake Ontario” by setting their maps to reflect Canadian regional settings.
“These modifications adhere to our established policy regarding bodies of water with differing names between countries,” the company stated on Saturday.
U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum stated on Fox Business that Trump had reached out to Apple, urging the company to change Lake Ontario to Lake America in its applications. Apple has not yet responded to multiple inquiries from CBC News.
In addition to providing real-time navigation for millions, mapping services from U.S. tech firms are deeply integrated into the websites and operations of numerous Canadian businesses.
They supply vital information such as operating hours, contact details, reviews, and more. Behind the scenes, these services aid e-commerce platforms in auto-filling addresses and enable rideshare and food delivery apps to track traffic and construction.
“There is a distinct monopoly,” Pasek noted. “People are effectively locked in.”
Could Trump target tech-related ‘choke points’ against Canada?
Emily Osborne, a policy research associate at the Canadian Shield Institute, highlighted that the Toronto-based think tank was established by BlackBerry co-founder Jim Balsillie to advance public policy on technology and national security while protecting Canadian intellectual property.
“We depend on American firms like Google and Apple for various digital services and products online, and navigation is definitely one of them,” Osborne remarked.
For basic navigation needs, she proposed Dutch companies TomTom and HERE Technologies as possible alternatives to Google and Apple.
Until recently, Canada had its own homegrown option. Toronto-based Avenza Systems was acquired by Blue Marble Geographics from Maine in a deal that was finalized in April.
If tensions persist between Canada and the U.S., Osborne fears the Trump administration might seek other tech-based “choke points” to exert pressure on Canada, particularly in areas like payment processing and cloud storage.
“Consider the AWS (Amazon Web Services) outage that occurred last fall. A considerable number of Canadian businesses were impacted,” Osborne stated.
Osborne emphasized that the outage demonstrates how susceptible Canadian businesses can be when they rely on U.S.-owned digital infrastructure, especially if access is ever limited by governmental action.
“Canadian businesses depend on Visa and MasterCard for credit card transactions. We currently lack a Canadian alternative for that,” she concluded.