‘An attack on our Canadian identity’: Google Maps users report provincial parks mislabelled as ‘state’ parks

Canadians are reacting in anger after discovering Google has erroneously labelled a number of Canadian provincial parks as state parks. Kathy Le has more.

Some Google Maps users in Canada are claiming provincial parks have been labelled as “state” parks.

“This alarming revelation has stirred many who have noticed, as it is an attack on our Canadian identity,” Rachel Deren wrote to CTV News. “I would like to draw attention to this disgusting display of American oppression of Canadian culture and autonomy.”

She said Canadian Google Maps users are reporting errors to the tech giant, marking the parks as having “incorrect designations” and suggesting edits to the category.

“We are proud to be Canadian and will remain so despite attempts like this from our ever increasingly hostile neighbours to the south.”

Mount Robson Park, Whaleboat Island Marine Provincial Park and Pinecone Burke Provincial Park are some of Canada’s parks that have been relabelled, according to screenshots shared by users and verified by CTV News.

Samantha Gietema, another user, said the tech giant removed “provincial parks” as a category on the app altogether.

Anger from some Canadian Google Maps users was sparked given Canada’s recent row with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to make Canada its 51st state and referencing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “Governor Trudeau.”

In a statement to CTV News, a Google spokesperson said no recent changes were made to the labels on Google Maps.

“The vast majority of these parks have had their existing labels for several years. We’re actively working to update labels for parks in Canada to avoid confusion,” they said in an email.

Why Google Maps label it a ‘state’ park

Long-time Google Maps contributor Mackenzie Shopland, a level 10 local guide with more than 20,000 edits to B.C. parks and public natural spaces, told CTV News in an email that many countries use the “state park” category because there is none currently for “provincial park.”

“If you ever see the extremely rare ‘provincial park’ used as a category, this was imported automatically by Google using the old Google Map Maker categories. They have long since simplified the categories (there used to be many hundreds of obscure categories) and provincial park is no longer an option when adding or editing parks,” she said.

Shopland said the “state park” category has to do with how the labels are prioritized for display.

“Unfortunately, Google has decided to never publish any kind of formal definition for these like the community has for Open Street Maps,” she said.

The Google spokesperson said they are used interchangeably in Google’s backend systems due to the similarity in state and provincial parks, both of which are managed by governments.