Angry Google Maps users report Canada’s provincial parks mislabelled as ‘state’ parks
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Some Google Maps users in Canada are claiming provincial parks have been labelled as 'state' parks.

They’re done this globally apparently. They just got rid of the provincial park option and defaults all government operated nature reserves, of any government, as “state parks”.

Seems very shortsighted and with a disregard for other countries. Extremely confusing move by google.

yea, ‘state park’, as in ‘operated by the state’

I can see why they did this, but its really stupid, especially at a time like this. i’ve reported half a dozen parks.

But “the state” at issue here would be Canada. A provincial park isn’t a state park since we have national parks too and they’re separate entities.

Jerkface (any/all)
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14d

deleted by creator

There was no reason to do this other than stay out of Trumps retaliation zone. It is wrong to say operated by the state when it is operated by the province.

My theory is that some asshole at google thought it was soo much to keep track of what every government globally calls their government operated parks and nature reserves, and just wanted a blanket term for it and went for “state park”, with no consideration for how itd piss most countries off.

@Auli@lemmy.ca
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164d

Bullshit. The fact it is happening now is no mistake.

Yep. Trump’s trying to ramp up support for the Canadian Anschluss and there are no more coincidences

@Taleya@aussie.zone
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224d

Cultural colonialism

@GrizzlyBur@lemmy.ca
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I can’t tell whats more annoying: if they did it out of malice or indifference.

Either way, the cultural homogenizing effects of mass social media is a mistake and must be fought against. Countries that primarily speak English are at the greatest threat of this. If I had a magic genie I’d wish that Canadian’s native language was anything other than English so people’s minds wouldn’t be so easily poisoned by all the dumb bullshit media the US produces. There are genuinely people in Canada who believe they have Second Amendment rights.

I’ve been saying this lately, but Canada as a whole needs to emulate what Quebec is doing to protect its cultural identity. Limit American media coming into the country. Defend and cultivate our unique cultural identity at all costs.

Anyone that says Canada is not distinguished culturally from America is ignorant. I am a dual citizen who has lived in and loved both countries. Just because we are neighbours, mostly white, and speak the same language, does not make us identical. We have a different social fabric. The biggest difference is that America is a extremely individualistic society, and Canadians are a collective society. I’d call us socialist, but that word immediately turns off the listening ears of Americans as they have been programmed since McCarthy to reject socialism in all forms – even though America has dozens of socialist programs such as social security and food stamps. To explain socialist concepts to Americans you have to use synonyms. It’s like feeding a dog a pill covered in fucking peanut butter. Gotta “trick” them to help them because they just don’t understand otherwise. I don’t wanna trick anybody I just wanna help but stupid fucking billionaires got these idiots convinced socialist concepts are gonna destroy the country. Oh no! We made your medications cheaper and allowed you to unionize so you can get better wages and job security! So evil! I swear, if you changed “Union Dues” to “Employment Insurance” they’d be all aboard.

@Taleya@aussie.zone
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Anyone that says Canada is not distinguished culturally from America is ignorant.

This one struck me particularly delightfully because i’ve been getting into Letterkenny of all things and you very clearly do. Hell i can see that as an aussie,

Should add, that probably sounded incredibly puerile, but most of our english-speaking country media is still dominated by the uk and US (although NZ is making inroads) We don’t get much Canadian stuff down here, the last big one was due south and that was very pastiche.

@dankm@lemmy.ca
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What @GrizzlyBur@lemmy.ca said before me, but also, try out Corner Gas. It’s family safe and also hilarious. It’s been credited with introducing other Canadians to Saskatchewan culture since 2004.

@GrizzlyBur@lemmy.ca
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I love me some Letterkenny. While it is a comedy, it really does an excellent job at highlighting what being Canadian means. I really need to watch the spin off, Shoresy.

If you’re interested in more media that helps you understand what being Canadian is all about, I’d recommend listening to some of the most iconic Canadians musicians of all time: Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, The Tragically Hip, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and The Band. You’ve almost certainly heard their songs before, but listen to some of their less popular music.

Here’s some specific songs that I am fond of, and feel highlight Common Canadian Sensibilities:

  • King Harvest (Has Surely Come) by The Band
  • Dance me to the End of Love by Leonard Cohen
  • In View by The Tragically Hip
  • Bobcaygeon by The Tragically Hip
  • Signs by Five Man Electrical Band
  • Carefree Highway by Gordon Lightfoot
  • If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot
  • Illegal by Corbeau
  • Universal Soldier by Buffy Sainte-Marie
  • Til I Am Myself Again by Blue Rodeo
  • (You’re A) Strange Animal by Gowan
  • The Rest of My Life by Sloan
  • Money City Maniacs by Sloan
  • The Consumer by Stompin’ Tom Connors
  • Helpless by Neil Young
  • Heart of Gold by Neil Young
  • Life Is A Highway by Tom Cochrane
  • American Psycho by Treble Charger
  • Truth Doesn’t Live in a Book by Ben Chaplan
  • The Night Pat Murphy Died by Great Big Sea

These showcase a variety of genres and locations within Canada. We are a big country with such a beautiful mixture of experiences that allow for such wonderful music to be produced.

@DicJacobus@lemmy.world
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13d

america’s culture is consumerism, fanatical loyalty to products, and sports.

oh and obsession with violence

I doubt it, its the same issue with google changing Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America recently. Its a USA thing, all other mapping systems still have it as Gulf of Mexico because they aren’t bowing to trump and elon. A state and a province are not the same, provinces have less autonomy than a state.

@Auli@lemmy.ca
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44d

All? Sorry Apple is doing the same.

Sorry I meant all other country/regiinal mapping systems, Non USA

oh, thats 100% what happened.

“should we vary what these are called by country?”

“ehh, that would cost like $10,000 of developer time around the globe, just standardize it”

@Auli@lemmy.ca
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44d

So where they called provincial parks before?

Some were, some weren’t. This goes back almost to the beginning of Google Maps, but seems they’ve started to standardize them recently. They claim they started before Trump’s inauguration.

No its the same as the recent Google move of renaming Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America, it is not easier, it just appeases trumps new mandates. Open Map systems around the world already include terms for Country/State/Province/territory, etc. Its a tag label in a program field.

Pretty sure this change was from November, but it’s an issue now because of the Cheeto

Online articles say people have screenshots from a few days ago as of Provincial and now it says State Park, so even if google did make a back end change before January then the timing is odd for it to be showing changes now.

JokeDeity
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No one here is on Trump’s side, so I’m not defending Google, but it is common parlance to refer to the government of a nation as “the state” even when the nation has no states.

Except we had terms prior for google and openmaps to consider actual state vs province because provinces are a different type of designation in a country. I.e. Canada has provinces and territories, and are not fully autonomous like a state. This is google purposely changing a system to suit US use, while other map systems maintain the preestablish parlance.

@Auli@lemmy.ca
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54d

Cool but provincial parks are not run by the state. National parks are. Try pushing the narrative for Google and trump somewhere else.

They have a separate category for national parks. This is specifically referring to sub-national governments.

The problem is that for us there is a big difference between municipally run, province-run, and federally run parks. We also have private parks, privately owned but publically accessible parks, and of course, amusement parks.

Yep. Its not technically wrong to call them state parks, but still fuck’em that is our PROVINCIAL park.

Maybe a small cultural hill we are on right now but we give us enough of these hills and suddenly we lose any semblance of cultural uniqueness.

@Auli@lemmy.ca
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44d

It is wrong as the state would be national government. So these parks are run by the provinces and not the state of Canada.

Oh, 100% agree.

I’m just saying I understand WHAT they were trying to do, even if it stepped on a cultural landmine. As I said, Ive reported about a dozen parks now myself.

@corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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44d

half a dozen

Fucking Casual. :-P

I fully expect they’re gonna close my google account based on the amount of work some poor underpaid kid now has to do. I think I got every park in my province - already a herculean feat - and the one next door. It’s a lotta parks. I’m a little crazy.

@Reannlegge@lemmy.ca
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13d

You are doing great patriotic work, I wish I had the drive to do that. Instead I am writing daily letters to the MLAs and premier of Saskatchewan. And cancelling services offered by US companies.

ooh, hope you did BC too

I keep adding to it, a couple here, a couple there.

redfellow
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For me, using English (GB) as localization, they appear as national parks. Maybe it’s the term they use for English (US) set phones 🤔 Im located in Finland as well so.

Even the ones in US show up as national for me. Also checked the gulf of mexico, it’s still that for me.

That would make sense if we used English (US), but we use English (CA). Just a brief check of the parks in my area shows all the national parks are labeled “National Park”, the provincial parks are almost all “State Park[s]” with the occasional “Park”, and the regional parks have no consistent or logical pattern but I counted at least 5 different park labels.

Odd, I just looked up a famous national park in the UK and it’s listed as ‘National Park’

Peak District National Park as shown on Google Maps 24 February 2024

Yeah, it’s the regional (sub-National) parks affected.

I see, we don’t have such things over here. Thanks for the explanation.

All the regional parks in my area have completely different labels, it’s just the provincial parks that say “State Park”.

If people are wondering why Google is simping to Trump, they have been convicted of being a monopoly and the antitrust action is now in the penalty phase.

The action started under Trump I, was vigorously pursued by Biden’s Lena Kahn and the conviction secured. Now all that’s left is to decide the penalty, which could range from a strongly written letter to a breakup of the company.

I’m getting Microsoft, Clinton & Bush vibes here…

@Reannlegge@lemmy.ca
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63d

It is really to bad Canada is not going after them yet.

from “Not Evil” to “Prime Evil” in just a couple decades.

Phoenixz
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decades

Years

@madame_gaymes@programming.dev
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They’ve ramped it up in recent years, sure, but I think they been dormantly evil since they came on the scene and we just didn’t realize it until the hooks were in deep.

Perfect strategy for this kinda thing, and now they can just be brazen about it. Kinda like a certain red party in a certain shithole country.

@wirebeads@lemmy.ca
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744d

Canada really needs to develop its technology to get off of oppressive American tech. We need to work with other countries and develop our own tech to combat this. Absolutely insulting. Just a little “oopsie” after over a decade of not having mislabelled parks? The stink is showing.

@Kichae@lemmy.ca
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344d

Open source options exist. We just need more people using OpenStreetMaps and shit.

As much as i try to update OSM with local knowledge, there’s no way to keep OSM reasonably up to date without automation tools.

I’m not sure how OSM can replicate whatever tools google uses to constantly update open/close hours, new/dead businesses, bus stops with schedules, etc.

This is all just crowd sourced no? Like after I visit a place google will ask me a bunch of questions about it (eg. “Did they sell X here?”).

@And009@lemmynsfw.com
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34d

Atleast in India, Gmaps isn’t updated on local info either. OSM is barren in comparison.

There’s maps.cz, somehow has more local data (like hiking trails).

The geodata and related open source technology to edit, review, and host it is already available from openstreetmap community

A government funded utility that utilizes regional GIS and aerial mapping would go a long way. Google’s got the upper hand on directions and traffic reporting though, so that would take more time to make effective. A lot of that is genuinely due to the number of users that exist on the platform though. I think if you tried to implement similar location data analysis for government infrastructure, people would be up in arms at the idea, despite being perfectly happy to provide the same data to Google.

It’s unfortunate that Google is as prevalent a default service as they are, but it’s hard to ignore how good a service they offer, and how long the development period has been to get them there.

Yeah people have to start using OpenMaps more, and OSMAnd app alternative for navigation

@___@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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23d

I also recommend Magic Earth, I find the navigation to be more reliable than OSMAnd+

@paequ2@lemmy.today
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134d

Yep! I recently created an account with https://www.openstreetmap.org/ and started mapping my local area. Fuck Google.

I have been using the StreetComplete app that ties to that. It is actually helpful because I noticed some bad information on the local maps that was very easy to correct in the app.

@paequ2@lemmy.today
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64d

Yeah! StreetComplete is great! They really make it easy to improve the maps. It’s even motivated me to get out and walk more so I can complete the little quests.

Relevant communities:

metaStatic
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64d

just scrape the traffic data, it’s what they would do.

We have. Only it’s not well known, because of Google’s monopoly.

@wirebeads@lemmy.ca
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Then let’s start naming them and putting them out there. If they’re just maps but we need guis for apps on these, then it’s a great time to start that process and get developers in on it, preferably open sourced if possible.

My guess is there would be lots of developers willing to work on a project like this to help distance us from America.

Every canadian should switch to Organic Maps for national security purposes.

!organicmaps@sopuli.xyz

Does that matter if your os is still Android (like most people are)?

It will prompt you to use Google’s Maps or any other map program you have installed when you clock on an address. You may have to reset the default program for map links if you had more than one option and chose Google Maps as the option in the past, though.

@ehpolitical@lemmy.ca
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474d

Feels like we’re being politically raped, and it’s really pissing me off.

@Dtules@lemmy.ca
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234d

Yeah, they elected a rapist so…

@ehpolitical@lemmy.ca
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Ikr?! How do you even begin to make sense of that?! You can’t! And now, here the rest of us are being forced to deal with it. Makes me wanna scream.

Please do: loudly and at the local US consulate of possible. If not, if there is a town hall, they need to hear your complaint.

@nanoswarm9k@lemmus.org
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33d

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering_in_the_United_States

Cracking and Packing. Learn and save yourselves, if you can.

@ehpolitical@lemmy.ca
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I get the very strong sense it’s too late, that we’ve crossed some line or passed some tipping point… really hope I’m wrong.

@nanoswarm9k@lemmus.org
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43d

crossed a ripping point yes. so tactics change. it’s not too late as long as people are still alive. Like painting or sewing – we build on and salvage from mistakes. (see: transitional ethics, from social sciences)

if you feel despair, seek community and feed your soul. Please do not comply in advance, internet friend!

we survived the AIDs crisis by working and organizing by day, potlucking together, and partying and dancing to feed our spirits by night. (figurative, for our night owls and 3rd shifters.)

@ehpolitical@lemmy.ca
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Thanks. I’m not worried for myself in the common sense, and don’t plan on complying… I’m more worried for others and how they’ll cope with what I suspect is coming.

@nanoswarm9k@lemmus.org
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23d

fortunately there is plenty of work to harness worry to usefulness. whatever your skills, I’m sure local chapters of progressive and human rights groups could appreciate the support. even just using whatever privledge you have to shut down racist or sexist jokes and denormalizing exclusive-supremacist comments and behavior helps hold the line.

uh someone link those fight the altright videos ig. the lecture has already been done with cool production.

if you feel despair, seek community and feed your soul. Please do not comply in advance, internet friend!

This right here is lovely, and I know I’m not gonna be the only person scrolling by who needed to read it. ty.

@samus12345@lemm.ee
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13d

Grab 'em by the parks!

Just label the US as South/Lesser Canada.

The Gulf of Lesser Canada does have a certain ring to it…

@Geodad@lemm.ee
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63d

Do you guys need any geologists? I’d love to get out of this country.

@ikidd@lemmy.world
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We have quite a lot of geology.

metaStatic
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234d

Can you please go burn down the White House again?

Jesus fucking Christ already!

The orange butt plug and fElon need to keep their fucking hands off Canada.

I mean I knew Americans weren’t great at geography, I didn’t realize it was this bad.

@HikingVet@lemmy.ca
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The app is showing provincial and national for me. I’m in NS and have a few around the city and they aren’t mislabeled from what I see.🤷🏻‍♂️

Either I’m the odd one out or they changed it back.

Edit: found one, how have you been reporting this?

I wouldn’t be surprised if the orange utan asked Google to “make a mistake” on purpose, to float the idea and see what would happen.

@IronKrill@lemmy.ca
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May as well start calling temples “churches” and change all speed limits to Mph since it seems we’re in a “being wrong” contest.

@Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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I’m not seeing this at all.

Provincial Parks in BC are all still called ‘xyz provincial park’.

If you explicitly search for ‘state park’ all the provincial ones come up, but there’s nothing in any of their details mentioning ‘state’ in anyway.

/edit: found it.

It’s subtle, but it’s there.

breakfastmtn
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Mount Robson Park from both search and maps:

@Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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They don’t let you specify in the ‘edit suggestion’ what it should be; but they let you add images.

/edit submitted one for every park in BC.

Since we are renaming things, why not abandon the America noun to designate the USA?

That would please millions on Americans from many countries that calls themselves Americans since they are referring to the continent.

@corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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24d

Congrats. It’s a lot of parks.

Looks like they have not changed all of them yet

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