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Canadians have taken to social media wondering why Google Maps was referring to some provincial parks as “state” parks, an incorrect designation that has ruffled feathers at a time of heightened tension between Canada and the United States.
Social-media users shared screenshots showing provincial parks in British Columbia and elsewhere described by the search engine as “state” parks.
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Some expressed confusion and anger and referenced U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly asserted that Canada should become the 51st state.
But Google said it hadn’t made any recent changes to the way it labels parks in Canada. “The vast majority of these parks have had their existing labels for several years,” the company said in a statement on Monday.
The company was “actively working” to update the labels to “avoid confusion,” it said, adding it has many labels for parks, and because state and provincial parks are similar, the terms are sometimes used interchangeably in its backend systems.
A page on Google Developers — the company’s site for software development and platforms — shows an update to the “place types” to describe locations on its Places API service last fall, adding “state park” to a list of designations.
Places API is a service that provides descriptions, data and images in response to search requests.
Previously, the designations for parks under the the “entertainment and recreation” category were “park,” “national park,” “amusement park,” or “dog park,” an August 2024 version of the page on the internet archive Wayback Machine shows.
But on Nov. 7, Google Developers said the category was expanded to include “cycling park” and “state park.”
Provincial park was not listed as a possible designation.
B.C. Environment Minister Tamara Davidson said she understood the concerns raised by the incorrect designations in the context of the current tensions.
The B.C. government had reached out to Google Canada requesting that “provincial park” be added as an option, she said in a statement.
“It is our understanding that the ‘state park’ label has always been the default setting of Google,” Davidson said.
“And let’s be clear, we will never be the 51st state,” she added.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2025.
Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press
