Canadians Canceling on U.S.

Nice, going, there – sir. Apropos of absolutely nothing, and before he even raised his hand in the air to be sworn in, our 47th President went out of his way, over and over and over, to gratuitously insult our heretofore closest ally, the one with whom we share a 2,000 mile largely unguarded border – how is that for savings? Imagine having to militarize a border that long against an adversarial neighbor? – for no American benefit whatsoever. Yes, Donald Trump had an adolescent time of it, trolling Canadians with the “51st State” sh*t, reducing a vaunted member of the G7 to standing alongside Idaho and Wisconsin. Adding insult to injury, Trump lined up one of the few true global leaders at the time in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and started calling him “Governor,” as any self-respecting troll would do. Turns out that when taking such self-inflicted wounds, one doesn’t even need to line up blanket tariffs to enrage the neighbors, though – of course, those didn’t help. Now, Canadians are acting in accord with how we’d expect anyone to act, miffed. Turned off. Upset. Walking away, and taking their money elsewhere.

Canadians are voting internationally with their wallets and they’re not planning on visiting their relatives down south any time soon. Americans will feel the loss according to a new report in The Independent, Canadian travel agents have seen plans fall off a cliff:

McKenzie McMillan, a travel consultant with the Vancouver-based Travel Group, said some of his clients have cancelled trips that were already booked. February is usually a busy month for the retail travel agency which specializes in both corporate and premium leisure travel as Canadians make plans for spring break vacations.

Canadians are forever taking sh*t for the weather. What many do not know is that in a more meritocratic society, where wages are higher at the bottom and don’t flow as directly to the top, the citizens have a wider ability to GTFO in winter and spend 10 days in Hawaii, or Florida, or… Cancun, Cabo, the Bahamas… Portugal… Anywhere but the U.S. now, it turns out:

“We’ve seen a complete drop off in any new requests or new interest in U.S. travel,” said McMillan. “I’ve had no requests for travel to the United States for about two weeks.”

Well, they’re practical. And can anyone blame them? We are talking about a nation with the same number of people as California, but with a landmass greater than that of the United States itself, again – reduced to another Nevada. This is not the way you treat your neighbor, whether it is within your block in your hometown, or your neighbor on the North American continent. And even though the tales told here are dramatic, it actually doesn’t even take all that dramatic a drop off to make a huge difference. And look whose state stands to lose the most?

The association says a 10% reduction in Canadian travel could mean 2 million fewer visits, $2.1 billion in lost spending and 14,000 job losses. The top five most visited states by Canadians are Florida, California, Nevada, New York and Texas.

Under no circumstances would any of this be good. The fact that it was all so needless, indeed, thankless, makes it that much worse. Compare to a president who – let’s just hypothetically say that the border is his or her biggest priority – comes in and says, “Thankfully, we have our best partner just to the north. I cannot wait to get into talks with my friend the Prime Minister and work with our greatest ally in Canada, to shore up this border and protect citizens on both sides from the drug scourge and international trafficking. We are blessed by our neighbors and a very capable leader, now it’s time to put that great relationship to use. Let’s get to work!” Same exact desire, same goal (Purportedly), 100% different tone, and yet if that were the message, it is indeed likely that Canada would line up with a new American president to do its share in a renewed commitment. Probably gladly so – neighbors are that way.

Alas, we have cancellations and global unease due to the way Trump went about things. Added to all our other economic concerns, we now have to factor in being an international pariah. Not very well done. All of it so pointless. What did we get out of this? Embarrassed.

God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter-X at @JasonMiciak, and please follow me on Bluesky. 

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