MapQuest surges to top of app charts after keeping Lake Ontario name
· Toronto Sun
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A map app is taking a victory lap after saying it wouldn’t scrap Lake Ontario.
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MapQuest saw a surge in downloads of its digital navigation app in Canada and the U.S. in recent days after its decision to keep the name of Lake Ontario unchanged despite President Donald Trump’s order renaming it “Lake America.”
The mapping company rocketed up the charts to become the second most popular free app in Apple’s app store in Canada and was the eighth most downloaded program in the U.S. over the weekend.
By Tuesday, MapQuest moved ahead of ChatGPT to became the top free app in the U.S., the company said .
App most downloaded in Canada
As of Wednesday morning, MapQuest is tops on the Android app in Canada, ahead of ChatGPT.
The boost in interest stemmed from Google and Apple changing the name of the shared body of water to “Lake America” on their maps following Trump’s directive.
The U.S. president renamed the easternmost Great Lake in a tit-for-tat response to Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s criticisms of Trump’s tariff threats following the breakdown of trade talks between the countries last month.
“We took the same approach we did with the Gulf of Mexico: be part of the conversation, and give people an app that keeps the names they’re familiar with,” Doug Berger, General Manager of MapQuest, said in a statement Monday .
Keeping name of lake unchanged for all users
The company said hundreds of thousands of people downloaded its apps since last Thursday after the company announced on social media its decision not to change Lake Ontario’s name , adding usage is running roughly 50 times its normal rate.
“Hundreds of thousands of people signaled to us this weekend that we got it right, by downloading our app,” Berger said.
Over the weekend, Google updated its maps for people based in the U.S. while keeping it Lake Ontario for Canadian users.
Then on Tuesday, Apple said it made the switch after the tech giant was apparently contacted by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to make the change.
Canadian response to renaming
Prime Minister Mark Carney said last week that Canada has no interest in renaming Lake Ontario, saying on social media that it will be known as Lake Ontario “ now and always. ”
“The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America,” Carney wrote.
“We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms.”
On Saturday, Premier Ford unveiled a new sign by the shores of the lake near Hamilton to remind the U.S. President and everybody else that it is known as Lake Ontario.
“Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario,” Ford said in a video shared to social media .
“But just in case President Trump or anyone else forgets, we’ve set up this sign to remind them it’s Lake Ontario now and forever.”