‘I’m just not comfortable crossing the border right now’

By Ben Olson and Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

Vehicles bearing license plates from Canadian provinces are a familiar sight in North Idaho, especially during the summer tourist season. Neighbors on both sides of the international border have a long history of friendly relations, regularly crossing over to recreate in each others’ countries; but, in the wake of President Donald Trump’s rhetoric pushing for Canada to become the “51st state” and instigating a trade war with 25% tariffs on imports from both Canada and Mexico and 10% tariffs on energy resources from Canada, those license plates are likely to be a rarer sight in Sandpoint.

The White House issued a fact sheet Feb. 1 on the tariffs, claiming that the move was intended to hold the targeted countries — which included China — “accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country.”

However, as former-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote in a March 3 statement, “less than 1% of fentanyl intercepted at the U.S. border comes from Canada.” The nation has spent $1.3 billion strengthening controls intended to intercept illicit drugs crossing the border into the U.S. — including by appointing a “fentanyl czar.”

Trudeau also responded with a vow to reciprocate with 25% tariffs on U.S. goods and called on Canadians to keep their dollars close to home.

The dramatic breakdown in relations has raised concerns across the economy, but for border communities like Boundary and Bonner County, the effects will be most evident with a decrease in visitors from nearby provinces like British Columbia and Alberta. 

In a news release Feb. 3, the U.S. Travel Association estimated that even a 10% decline in Canadians visiting the U.S. could result in a loss of 2 million tourists,  $2.1 billion and 14,000 jobs across the country.

For some, like three British Columbia residents interviewed for this story, it isn’t certain when, if ever, they will return to the United States.

‘If a Canadian spills a beer in the forest…’

For Creston, B.C. residents Nancy and Robert, North Idaho has been a home away from home for the past 15 years. Every winter, the couple — who asked that their last name not be printed out of fear of retaliation — has purchased a season pass at Schweitzer, rented a condo or hotel room for a month, and frequented local bars and restaurants most nights.

That is, until Trump began suggesting that Canada would become the “51st state” and called then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “Governor … of the Great State of Canada.” Trump’s rhetoric led Nancy and Robert to make the difficult decision to cut off all travel to the U.S.

The couple wrote a letter to Sandpoint Mayor Jeremy Grimm on Feb. 16 informing him that they would not be returning.

“Because of the threats to the sovereignty of Canada from your president, my husband and I are no longer visiting Schweitzer nor even crossing the border,” they wrote. “As it stands now, we will not be purchasing ski passes for next ski season.”

Nancy told the Reader the couple’s personal boycott of the U.S. began immediately after Trump’s statements.

“January 27 — that’s when we made the final decision,” Nancy said. “That ‘51st state’ stuff was just over the top. I believe that was the last time we crossed. It was a heartbreaking decision, but an easy decision. Country first.”

Nancy said living 10 kilometers — or about six miles — north of the border made Schweitzer their closest ski hill. They enjoyed skiing there so much, they began staying for a month or more.

“We always made trips to Sandpoint,” she said. “Once we got a pass, we were coming 40-50 days a year, often staying the entire month.”

Until this year, the pair were pleased with the arrangement. They made dozens of local friends and looked forward to reconnecting every season.

“Everyone always treated us like royalty, we’ve got a dozen ski friends there and nobody saw us as any different than anyone else, really,” she said.

To cap off their ski day, Nancy and Robert often paired up with other visiting Canadian couples or local friends to head out on the town, striving to visit a new pub every evening. They regularly purchased local art from Sandpoint galleries, souvenirs from retailers and other memorabilia for friends back home.

“It was part of our social life and part of our recreation,” she said. “I’ve always felt that it’s been friendly, but you could sort of start picking up on things — especially driving through Bonners. They make it known where you are with that big billboard. I always just kind of blocked that out when I drove through on the way to the ski hill and tried to forget about that part.”

Nancy began noticing other indicators that led up to what she referred to as America’s “shocking” transformation.

“It shocked me when we had a confrontation at the ski hill, which has never happened before,” she said. “Someone saw our license plates and said, ‘You guys are being brainwashed by commies up there.’ It really disturbed my husband. I’ve had others tell us they’ve had someone toss a big gob of chew spit on their windshield because of their Canadian license plates.”

The open hostility baffled Nancy and Robert, who are proud of their Canadian kindness.

“I’m a passionate Canadian and I’m proud of who we are,” she said. “We’re polite and friendly to our neighbors. My husband has a shirt that reads, ‘If a Canadian spills a beer in the forest, will he still apologize?’ We’re proud of that reputation.”

Watching the relationship decline from friendly neighbors to animosity saddens Nancy, but she also said it has united Canadians.

“Everyone is label-reading, trying to buy Canadian as much as possible,” she said. “Our sovereignty is being threatened and we’re not taking that lightly at all.”

The couple canceled their Netflix and Amazon Prime subscriptions. She has been buying local produce, handing out Canadian flags downtown and writing letters to share their story on why they have decided to boycott the U.S.

Nancy estimates she and her husband spent an average of $20,000 every ski season when staying in North Idaho — money she vows to spend only on Canadian products and services moving forward.

Yet, her message to Americans worried about a negative reception when traveling into Canada: “You are welcome.”

“Americans should feel very welcome here,” she said. “Open arms. Totally. We met a[n American] couple at Rossland and they said, ‘I’m so sorry,’ and we said, ‘We’re sorry you feel the need to say sorry,’ so we all had a laugh about that. But we’ve noticed a lot of Americans coming into Canada saying they were there to support us now more than ever before. That’s been great.”

For Nancy, the toughest part of the breakdown of relations between two once-friendly countries is coming to terms with the negative, often fallacious rhetoric coming from Trump.

“He says so many lies about Canada,” she said. “So many lies. … Maybe there are systems we could do better as North America — like the EU, they have a common currency, no borders, but they did it together, around a table, discussing things over time until there was satisfaction. Not bullying and outright threats. That’s not how the world should work.”

Also, Trump’s treatment of veterans has alarmed Nancy over the years.

“It brings tears to my eyes, thinking about your guy criticizing John McCain, a war hero, and belittling him,” she told the Reader. “There are no words to describe that kind of behavior. There are no words to describe the people that go along with someone like that. … We very much stand behind the military and we’ve always been allies with you.”

While she plans to stick to her boycott until the end of Trump’s term, Nancy said she hopes the rift isn’t a permanent one.

“I think it’s repairable,” she said. “I just hope the American people will welcome us back with open arms.”

‘We love our Canadian friends’

Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mickey Quinn said she’s already seen a decrease in Canadian visitors to North Idaho.

“This time last year we had a lot more than we do [now],” she told the Reader.

The latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures bear that out, showing a recent sharp decline in arrivals at the Eastport and Porthill border crossings in Boundary County. 

While crossings from Canada were consistently between about 23,000 and 24,000 per month from November 2024 to January 2025, that number fell to 19,100 in February — almost 4,000 fewer than the month before and 2,700 fewer than in February 2024. Those decreases in inbound U.S.-Canada travel at Idaho’s two international border crossings amounted to 12.4% year over year and 17% from January to February alone, during which time relations between the countries dramatically soured.

If that trend holds through the summer months, many area businesses that cater to Canadian visitors or rely on the bump in spending from tourists from their northern neighbors would feel the effects.

Data from past years shows travel from Canada to the U.S. through Eastport and Porthill is typically between 37,000 and 67,000 per month from May through September, with total visits reaching 366,000 in 2023 and 421,000 in 2024. As of February, the number of crossings from Canada to Idaho during the fiscal year beginning October 2024 came to 123,000.

Though Quinn is concerned about the declining numbers, she said Canadian visitors represent a small portion of North Idaho’s tourists overall.

“I don’t know we’ll see a decrease in tourism overall, because Idaho is definitely a destination that a lot of the U.S. likes to come to, as well as Europe,” she said. “I don’t think we’ll see a decrease in that traffic, but we’re hearing from Canadians in the current climate — the culture, the shift, the politics — and they’re choosing not to come.”

The U.S. Travel Association estimates that Idaho’s tourism industry is worth $3.7 billion, employing more than 45,800 Idahoans and generating $475 million in federal, state and local tax revenue. According to the November 2024 report “The Economic Impact of Travel,” prepared for Visit Idaho, international visitors contributed more than $259 million in direct spending in the state in 2023 — accounting for 4.9% of the total dollars spent by tourists in Idaho, though that was up 29.8% from 2022.

The report lists accommodations and food; arts, entertainment and recreation; and transport as the top three categories for total earnings from overall tourist spending, with $254 million coming into the state’s coffers from the Idaho sales tax. On top of that, Quinn said the state of Idaho collects a 2% bed tax, which, according to the Idaho Department of Commerce, adds up to more than $12 million per year. Almost half of that revenue goes to individual grantees, such as the chamber, to help draw tourists to the state, with the same portion going to attract international and domestic tourists, tour operators, travel agents and travel journalists.

Meanwhile, the city of Sandpoint collects a 14% tourist lodging tax — approved by voters in 2022 and extended through 2035 — and Ponderay collects a 7% short-term occupancy tax.

It’s unclear exactly how much a significant decline in Canadian tourism would cost the local area in lost revenue, but the Bonners Ferry Herald reported in late March that the Kootenai Tribal Development Corporation had seen “a sharp decline in Canadian traffic,” which several local businesses said posed a dire threat to their operations.

However, Quinn said it’s worth noting that Idaho’s tourism agency is maintaining its advertising to potential Canadian visitors.

“I think it’s important to remain consistent to tell them they’re always welcome here,” she said. “Canadian visitors are an important part of our tourism and local economy. [Local merchants] should probably be prepared to have a dip in visits, but that just emphasizes the reasons to be prepared for every person who walks through the doors.”

Quinn said she’d like to remind Canadian visitors that Sandpoint still cares about them.

“The great people of Sandpoint are the same ones that were here when they had a great experience last time they visited,” she said. “We love our Canadian friends, we love their business and we appreciate them so much. We’re ready to serve them. Please don’t let what’s happening in our nation’s capital affect their opportunities to experience North Idaho and the wonderful people who are ready to serve them.”

‘Elbows up’

It was also the “51st state” talking point from Trump that served as the last straw for Mike, who lives outside of Creston about a dozen miles from the border (Mike also wished for his last name to be withheld due to safety concerns). Mike has sworn to never travel into the U.S. again, nor purchase any products made in America.

“For your readers, to make it especially clear, the tariffs were hurtful, but the real issue is when your president said he was going to break our economy and make us into the 51st state,” Mike told the Reader. “That crosses a huge line in Canada. I don’t think I’m ever going back.”

Mike said he’s spent holidays in the U.S. for many years, ever since his parents bought property in Washington on the Pend Oreille River.

“We spent most of our summers there and I knew a lot of American folks from there,” he said. “We always crossed freely and never felt any hesitation about crossing the border at all.”

Last year, Mike and his wife decided to strike an item from their bucket list to visit Washington, D.C. to tour the museums and monuments there.

“We said we’d better go now, because if Trump gets in it’ll be really crazy,” he said.

As a person of color, Mike said, “given the climate of violence or intolerance that Trump fosters, it makes it difficult for me to want to travel into the States, especially where there is a heavy Republican presence and the implied threats that come from ICE about deporting people without due process.”

He isn’t hopeful that these wounds will heal with time. 

“I think this is irreparable,” he said. “This is going to be generational. I have no ill will toward Americans, but I won’t go down to the States ever again. Nor will my kids. Not in my lifetime. My son is already teaching his kids not to buy American. That kind of thing doesn’t get undone tomorrow. … If you asked me could this happen so fast back in December of 2024, I’d have thought you were insane.”

While Mike acknowledges that most Americans view Canadians as “nice,” that shouldn’t be confused with Canadians folding on issues like national sovereignty, which he said he will fight to defend.

“In Canada, if you want to own a weapon, you have to have what’s called a PAL, a possession and acquisition license, and you have to take a firearm safety course,” Mike said. “Right now, in cities in Canada, you cannot get into PAL courses. They’re all full, because Canadians are saying, ‘We will buy arms if the Americans come.’ If they’re going to make it an issue, we will fight. I don’t like that. I think it’s a terrible thing, but I don’t know what else to say to people. We’re really, really angry about that [51st state talk].”

For now, Mike has made peace with breaking ties with the States, telling the Reader these threats have united Canadians — liberal and conservative — to put their country first and stand up to the bullying coming from the White House.

Lately, Mike said Charlie Angus — a member of Canada’s New Democratic Party — has become a folk hero in Canada for reinvigorating the phrase, “elbows up” — a reference to famed hockey player Gordie Howe, who was given the moniker “Mr. Elbows” for his aggressive play. When someone dared mess with one of Howe’s teammates, he “put the elbows up,” which resulted in bloody noses and black eyes. Now, the phrase stands for something more: a rallying cry for Canadians to throw their “elbows up” and defend their country. 

The phrase made it onto Saturday Night Live earlier in April, when Canadian-born comic Mike Myers pointed to his right elbow and then up in the air, mouthing the words, “elbows up.” 

According to Mike — from outside of Creston — another saying about Canadians sums up the mood north of the border: “Canadians are really, really nice. Until we’re not.”