REGINA - Back in January, I hopped on a plane for my usual winter getaway break to Las Vegas, in an effort to escape the ice and snow.
I came back right before President Donald Trump slammed Canada with 25 per cent tariffs. That was the start of a cycle of Trump hitting us with tariffs, only to have to walk them back after the stock markets take a dive.
The response has been that Canadians have been galvanized. They have countered with efforts to “buy Canadian” products and bans on American liquor at the liquor stores. But the most notable response has been with Canadians dropping their travel plans to the USA.
Because of President Trump’s tariffs, and his always opening his big mouth and talking about Canada becoming the 51st State, travel by Canadians to the USA is down upwards of 70 per cent. People are all on board for boycotting the USA over politics.
Me? I’ve had a long-standing policy of NOT boycotting travel to places for political reasons.
Maybe I ought to, given some of the reprehensible places I have been to. Among others, I have twice been on vacations to South Africa during the Apartheid era.
At least I had an excuse for those trips — I didn’t have much choice. I was a kid, and those were visits by my family to see the rest of the relatives. It was also a good excuse to escape Saskatoon snowstorms during the wintertime, although we could have easily gone to Disneyland for that.
But you did get to see for yourself what life was really like and whether South Africa was as awful a place as it was portrayed in the news. Honestly, through my own eyes as a kid, the place didn’t seem that bad. There were beaches and good weather, and good amusement parks. Life seemed more or less normal down there but there was a big tip-off that things were out a whack: the public washrooms.
You didn’t just have separate washrooms for “men” and “women.” You also had washrooms for “whites” and “coloureds.” When I saw that I was like “what is this?” It made no sense then and no sense now. That was how I learned directly about apartheid, and how lousy it was.
Then there was the time I visited Cuba. That’s a place with a questionable, authoritarian, one-party Communist government and a lack of human rights.
I’ll tell you, I learned a lot about that place when I was there. They really laid it on thick with the propaganda messaging on billboards and the pro-Communist stuff at the newsstands and bookstores. You saw how the whole situation impacted the grocery stores in particular, because American-made products were in short supply. It really was a “buy Cuban” type of situation in more ways than one.
Still, it was a good vacation. Among other things, because Cuba was so authoritarian they made sure drugs and cartels were nowhere to be found. It was super safe there. (Kind of sad, really.)
Anyway I am definitely not the person to talk to about the whole notion of standing on principle and boycotting travel to countries for political reasons. I typically don't care who's in office in these places. Usually when I go on vacation, I base it on price points and whether or not I will have a good time, as well as whether the weather will be any good. And of course, whether the trip is worth the hassle.
And that comes back to the USA. A lot of people are finding that the USA isn’t worth the hassle right now. Yes, there is the whole political situation, but it’s not just people boycotting because they don’t like the President. It’s also because they’re getting the sense that foreigners are persona non grata down there, especially the visitors from countries that used to be considered “friends”.
They are hearing all the stories about ICE raids and illegal immigrants being shipped out of the USA. But then they hear stories of ordinary people going to the USA for seemingly legitimate reasons who are having their smartphones seized and who are landing in detention centres for flimsy reasons.
Then you have the “snowbirds” who like to take their RVs down to Arizona or Florida in the wintertime. Those folks are browned off as well. Now, there are new rules where they must register if you plan to be in the USA more than 30 days. And so there’s a lot of concern about that as well.
The other issue is simply economic. The Canadian dollar is taking a beating and that is making life expensive for snowbirds who want to spend any serious amount of time in the USA. Your Canadian money isn’t going as far as it used to down there. Meanwhile, in Florida you have an additional issue where the costs of property there are going through the roof because of skyrocketing insurance premiums — a side effect of the hurricanes that keep on hitting that state.
Speaking of the dollar, I noticed the impacts on my wallet just during my trip to Las Vegas, which is normally an affordable destination.
Good grief, costs right across the Las Vegas Strip are through the roof, especially for food! Every time I went to a fast food joint I would mentally calculate the exchange rate, and the prices would always turn out to be ridiculous — in line with what the prices would be at a good restaurant in Regina. And the "good" restaurants in Vegas were completely out of my budget: only the elite people and oligarchs could eat there.
It was like movie theatre pricing for food right across the Strip! It was ridiculous, and it’s not just me complaining. Even people in Vegas are noticing that the Strip has been less busy this year, and that’s because people are sick of being nickel and dimed. This may actually be my last visit to Vegas for a while, and Donald Trump has nothing to do with it.
But the constant string of insults of Canada by President Trump about the “51st State” are the final straw for people who would normally be partial to going to the USA. You simply get the impression that the USA doesn’t want us.
Trump said it himself: he says Canada has nothing America needs. Well, it turns out Canada does have something America needs, especially in these sunbelt and tourist destinations, and that’s money.
Unfortunately, Canadian tourists and Snowbirds don’t have unlimited amounts of money, and it sure feels like we are being taken for granted. Canadians are done with the disrespect. The Americans need to do a better job of showing Canadians they want our business and if they don’t, we’ll adjust our plans.
Believe it or not, I think our collective resolve to teach the Americans a lesson is making an impact. Because so many Canadians have cancelled their plans and are boycotting American vacations en masse, I’ve noticed airline prices have been dropping to rock-bottom levels for several destinations in the southern USA that I might not mind visiting.
Given my reprehensible travel history and general lack of moral integrity when it comes to making these types of vacation decisions, I’ve wondered if maybe I should take advantage of these good deals while I can. Why not, eh?
But then you hear the horror stories about hassles at customs and people being detained, and all the rest of the craziness going on in the place I call the “Upset States,” and you have to think twice. “Anywhere else” seems like a better bet given this atmosphere.
If the Americans truly want Canadians to spend money down there, they really do need to get with it.
