Jacques Cartier and John Cabot must be rolling in their graves, after back-to-school shoppers noticed Hilroy had been selling a version of its iconic scribblers decorated with images of Canada that somehow missed Newfoundland and Cape Breton.

Canadians got their dander up, particularly on the East Coast. Hilroy has said it’s correcting the omission, which it attributed to a “production error,” an explanation that offers little to no insight.

Maps, and their questionable integrity, are getting an awful lot of news coverage lately. We’re awash in petty taunts that mis-label Canada as the 51st state, or carve out Alberta for the U.S., or paint all of North America and Greenland in stars and stripes, as though claiming self-governing territories were as easy as picking up a crayon and writing, “Mine.”

“Lake America” has become the distraction that won’t die. Amid failed Canada-U.S. trade negotiations, a petty executive order claiming authority to rename Lake Ontario inspired a retaliatory stunt by Ontario Premier Doug Ford who, a few days earlier, grabbed headlines by inviting the U.S. president to kiss the substantial real estate on his hind........

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