As leaders on both sides of the border reacted in recent days to Google Maps changing the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” in line with U.S. President Donald Trump’s urging, MapQuest posted a message on social media that quickly drew praise and led to a surge in app downloads.
“We won’t be changing it,” the company said Thursday with a screenshot of the lake on its mapping platform.
MapQuest, which is also a US company, continued its marketing campaign on Sunday, saying: “We know Lake Ontario is correct on our map.”
An app that many users likely haven’t thought about in years quickly became the third most popular app of all free apps on Monday, just behind ChatGPT and Meta AI, with Google Trends search traffic up 5,000 percent compared to the same period last year and searches up 500 percent over last week in Canada.
Globally, searches for the app are up 50 percent from last week and 40 percent from the same period last year.
While the U.S. is MapQuest’s largest market, Canadians also make up a “very large portion” of their customer base, and the decision to stick with the name resonated with them, said MapQuest CEO Doug Berger.
“Hundreds of thousands of people have chosen the app and downloaded it. People obviously agree with us, and we have resonated,” Berger said.
But while switching from Google Maps to MapQuest takes just a few clicks on your smartphone, switching to other digital technology services can be more complicated—and often there aren’t many alternatives to the U.S. tech giants, let alone Canadian options amid growing “Buy Canadian” demand, experts say.
“Because of how dependent we are on American firms, there are many areas where they can limit our access to essential services,” said Emily Osborne, a policy researcher at the Canadian Defense Institute, a think tank launched last year that specializes in digital sovereignty and national security.
The institute’s board of directors includes former Blackberry co-CEO Jim Balsillie.
“Cloud infrastructure is an example of this, and you see people concerned about the possibility of cloud infrastructure or other critical infrastructure services going down,” she added.
For most Canadians, switching from American technology is easier said than done, according to Rotman School of Management marketing professor David Soberman.
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“Almost all the dominant companies are American-owned or American-owned,” he said.
Some cases may be easier to make changes than others, Soberman said. For example, some Canadians may prefer to order from Canadian platforms such as SkipTheDishes instead of UberEats, or purchase retail items from Canadian Tire rather than Amazon or Walmart.
“Canadian Tire is quite competitive and in some cases can even be cheaper,” Soberman said.
Some Canadian companies, such as Toronto-based HOVR and Beck Taxi, are also looking to compete with Uber and Lyft in some of Canada’s largest cities.
But much of American technology is ingrained in our lives, Osborne says, meaning services like website domains, email hosting, social media and other digital technologies will be harder to change.
While some Canadian social media alternatives like Gander and NorthSocial do exist, they don’t match the “scale” of the American social media giants, she said.
“It’s hard to move away from the Meta platforms because all our friends are going to continue using it. It’s hard to convince them all to switch,” she said.
You may be able to find app-specific alternatives, such as the Canadian Shift browser instead of Google Chrome, or Safari and cDox instead of Microsoft Word and Google Docs.
For those looking for an alternative to Microsoft Teams or Slack, Canadian conferencing software Callbridge offers an alternative.
However, Osborne said it may end up being less cost-effective as large US firms offer packages, packages and packages of software such as Microsoft Office or Google Suite.
“We have some Canadian alternatives to Google Docs or Google Sheets, but there is no complete alternative to those products,” she said.
In some areas, Canadians have more choice between Canadian and non-US technology offerings.
“We have a Canadian alternative to Gmail called Typewire, and when Canadian alternatives aren’t available or we’re interested in other alternatives, there are plenty of EU options that we can switch to. There are EU-based email providers like ProtonMail that are a little larger that we might consider switching to as well,” Osborne said.
And there are areas where there are no alternatives to American technologies, for example, payment platforms.
While Interac provides some domestic payments infrastructure in Canada, two American companies – Visa and Mastercard – dominate the global credit card network.
Last month, Canadian commerce solutions and payment processing platform Moneris acquired a new owner in the form of a US private equity firm.
Moneris, one of Canada’s largest commercial solutions providers, was jointly owned by the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank of Canada. American private investment company Francisco Partners, specializing in working with technology companies, bought the platform for $2 billion.
The sale of Canadian technology companies to American private equity has become commonplace.
“We used to have a Canadian alternative to Google Maps called Avenza, and we sold it to a private equity firm in Boston,” Osborne said.
Opportunity to “buy Canadian”
While the list of Canadian tech companies offering alternatives to U.S. giants may be small, the growing “Buy Canadian” movement provides an opportunity for growth, Soberman said.
“If there is a clear shift towards buying Canadian goods, that in itself will create new opportunities. After all, we have Shopify, a huge Canadian company, and others will arise if Canadians start to show that preference,” he added.
Ottawa could take a page from the European Union’s book by creating more tools, Osborne said.
“The French government has alternatives to Zoom, Teams and a lot of other American office software they create for their government employees.”
The renewed wave of shopping in Canada also presents marketing opportunities not only for Canadian but also for U.S. firms looking to build bridges with Canadian consumers, as MapQuest’s social media campaign shows, Soberman said.
“Something like changing Lake Ontario creates an opportunity for even American firms to respect Canada’s wishes,” he said.
But the ability to maintain any changes is important to maintaining any new habit or effort, experts say.
“People should always remember to look for the easiest ways to implement their preferences in this case, rather than punishing themselves,” Soberman says.
— With files from Global’s Mackenzie Gray.