Some Canadians are on edge after finding a handful of provincial parks in the country were labeled “state parks” on Google, fanning the flames of their concern surrounding President Donald Trump’s comments that Canada will become the U.S.’ “51st state.”
“I went to go look for myself on Google Maps, and sure enough, a bunch of the provincial parks had been changed to state parks, and when I went to edit to suggest an edit, I had noticed that the provincial park category had been completely removed from Google entirely,” a Canadian TikTok user, Samantha Gietema, told Canadian media outlet Global News.
Canada does not use a state system like the U.S. Instead, it is divided into 10 different provinces. Provincial parks in Canada are public areas designated by a province’s government for the purpose of preservation, tourism and recreation — similar to U.S. state parks.
Google worked to quell concerns shortly after news broke of the maps, explaining to Fox News Digital that no changes had recently taken place to swap provincial park designations to state parks. Instead, the designations have sometimes been used interchangeably across the years within Google’s system, as the two park systems operate similarly.
“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,” Davidson said.
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