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It’s exasperating because Canadians had been thawing a bit — including inching back to visiting Seattle and Washington state.
Last year, Canadian visitors to Seattle plunged by 600,000, from 1.7 million in 2024 to 1.1 million, Visit Seattle announced last month. Canadian tourist revenue dropped by $215 million just in Seattle, the group estimated.
That’s a lot of money lost to pointless annexation threats.
But healing was happening. Border traffic was up 13% in April, May and June, compared to 2025. Then on the three-day weekend of British Columbia Day, in early August, waits at Blaine’s southbound Peace Arch crossing were as high as 90 minutes.
“It felt like old times,” Saunders said. “We were all running around saying ‘the Canadians are coming south again!’”
And then?
“Trump opens his mouth, and everyone says ‘oh (expletive).’ “
In a coincidence, that rhymes with “Canuck.”
Trump in August had called Canada a “nasty” country. This was in the midst of supposedly delicate trade talks. Then he called Canada “among the worst Nations in the world to deal with … WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!”This precipitated the Ontario premier’s crude invite, which prompted Trump to call him a “flunky” and to threaten to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America.” As they said, it’s the dumbest war
In Bellingham, they’ve put up a sign that reads “Welcome. Everything is Fine.” It’s intended to be ironic.
“Everything is absolutely not fine,” the owner of a yarn shop told KING 5 news. “A 50% tariff, I can’t imagine any Canadian is wanting to come down with a 50% tariff.”
Saunders says Canadians seethe more about the disrespect than the prices. He has Canadian clients who were seeking to come to the U.S. but now are saying “never mind, I’m going to wait it out until he’s gone.”
“This is probably costing the U.S. billions in revenue, across all the northern states,” he said. “And for what? I don’t think Americans get it, even now.”
I don’t know about that last part. If Canadians are no longer afraid of Trump, that’s likely correlated with his eroding stance in this country. Example: A recent poll of all 50 U.S. states found that Trump is underwater in 47 of them. He remains with positive approval only in Idaho, Wyoming and West Virginia.
His rating in Washington state, -40 points, is third lowest in the nation after Vermont and Maryland, both at -50, says the Economist/YouGov poll. But he’s also down in ruby red places like Montana, Texas and Tennessee.
Sure, it’s just another poll. But public approval is the currency of politics. It still matters. As much as we may be veering into autocracy or oligarchy, or maybe idiocracy, the power still flows — for now — from the people.
So, to recap: Kiss my derrière, said the Canadian. Watershed moment? To be determined.
But it does feel like a sign from up north that this era may finally be nearing, um, some sort of bottom.