'State Park' Google Maps label on provincial parks has some Canadians worried
Google Maps displays “State Park” as the description for some Canadian provincial parks, and it has some folks worried, given U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Canada.
Cypress Provincial Park in West Vancouver and Joffre Lakes Provincial Park near Pemberton both display “State Park” when searched on Google Maps. That’s not the case for all B.C. provincial parks. Some are simply described as “Park.”
B.C.’s Joffre Lakes Provincial Park described as a “State Park” by Google Maps. (Google Maps)
Parks in Alberta and Quebec have the State Park descriptor, too.
Google Maps | OUESTUSA/Shutterstock
“This is incorrect and it is also very disrespectful,” Daily Hive reader Sonia Picco said. “[We should] start a movement to bombard Google to stop messing with the facts.”
Relations between Canada and the US are tense right now after US President Donald Trump took office. He’s threatened to implement heavy tariffs on goods travelling from Canada to the U.S. Trump also said Canada should become the 51st State, and it’s got people wondering how serious he could be.
After Trump announced plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, Google began displaying Gulf of America in brackets.
Google Maps
While some concerned Canadians are worried State Park could hint at Google legitimizing Trump’s desire to make Canada join the U.S., others believe the State Park labels could be a bug that is just gaining attention now as tensions rise.
“I was mad when I saw it too but I checked and other countries that have provincial parks such as Belgium also display ‘state park’ in their title,” one person said on Reddit.
“The bug is called ‘fascism,'” another replied.
The Reddit users suggested that people should report the name errors to Google with the hope that Canada’s provincial park labels will be updated.
BC Parks goes to Google about park labelling error
Tamara Davidson, B.C.’s Minister of Environment and Parks, told Daily Hive that BC Parks is aware of recent concerns around the state park label on Google Business listings for provincial parks in the province.
“Some users have reported that ‘provincial park’ is no longer an option and has been removed. We cannot validate that, and it is our understanding that the ‘state park’ label has always been the default setting of Google,” Davidson said.
BC Parks has contacted Google Canada to request a unique label option of provincial park for the Canadian nature pots.
“We understand the concerns this has raised in the context of recent events – and let’s be clear, we will never be the 51st state.”
A Google spokesperson told Daily Hive that it hasn’t made any changes to park labels in response to Trump’s comments.
“We have not made any recent changes to the way we label parks in Canada – 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.”