I’d Stay Away Too

This seems like a completely reasonable response by everyday Canadians to tell America that they’ll come back when our nation is less of a shithole.

It’s been a strange fall in two of New York State’s westernmost counties, Niagara and Erie, on the Canadian border.

Far fewer Canadians are crossing into New York to enjoy the changing foliage and the region’s plentiful vineyards and orchards.

This is not entirely unexpected: Canadians have been scarce at cultural attractions, sporting events and shopping malls in the area since President Trump threatened Canada with tariffs two weeks into his second administration (following through on those threats March 4), and spoke of adding the country as the 51st state.

But that absence has been deeply felt, said Anthony Sprague, general manager of the Buffalo Bisons baseball club, the top minor-league affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, who are facing off against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. Canadians typically comprise a quarter of the club’s fan base at its downtown Buffalo stadium, he said. This season, that share has shrunk to 10 percent.

The team began receiving season ticket cancellations even before the baseball season got underway in March, Mr. Sprague said. “The narrative was all the same: ‘Nothing against you guys, we love you guys, but we need to take a stand by not coming across the border.’”

….

The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, had high hopes of a robust Canadian turnout when it planned its current exhibition, “Northern Lights,” featuring major Nordic and Canadian landscape paintings. The museum, which displays modern and contemporary art and completed a $195 million expansion in 2023, is just six miles from the border.

But the throngs of Canadians anticipated when the show opened in August haven’t materialized. Monthly visits by Canadians to the museum over the past two years (tracked using address information from online and in-person ticket sales) hovered between 7 percent and 10 percent, a museum spokesman said. This past February, after Mr. Trump took office, that figure plummeted to under 3 percent, where it has remained, said Janne Sirén, the museum’s director.

On the flip side, when I drove to Montreal in April, I felt this enormous sense of relief when I crossed the border, like for 4 days I didn’t have to worry so much about this shit so much. Even if that meant ketchup chips surrounding me.