U.S. mayors ask Canadians to reconsider U.S. travel boycott

Since the beginning of the Canada-U.S. trade war early last year, travel south of the border is still far from recovering.

In January of 2025, the month before U.S. President Donald Trump announced there would be sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods, Statistics Canada found more than 3 million Canadians returned from the United States. That plummeted to about 2.3 million in January of this year, with a return to pre-trade war numbers still far off in the most recent statistics from April.

With the continued animosity between the nations, some U.S. mayors are making the plea to Canadians to reconsider the boycott.

“Hey Canadians, we like you guys, we miss you, we don’t think of you as the 51st state.” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey in an Instagram post this week. “I just wanted to make sure that there was a broad recognition in Manitoba and way beyond, throughout Canada that we like you.”

Minnesota is not the only state that has seen its tourism industry hit because of Canadians’ decision not to travel. North Dakota has also urged back Manitobans, with the U.S. Bureau of Transportation finding the amount of travel at the Pembina-Emerson border crossing dropped 35 per cent in 2025 compared to the year prior.

“We’ve always seen Canada as our cousins to us North Dakotans, and we’d love to see them back at the family reunion.” says Fargo Mayor Josh Boschee.

Tourism and travel organizations in North Dakota have been working directly with groups in Manitoba to encourage both Canadians and Americans to plan trips over the border. It’s something Mayor Boschee hopes can help bring the situation back to where it was prior to the trade war.

“There’s a lot of great opportunities, so when we see folks from Canada or other parts of the country decide not to visit here it certainly makes an impact.”

Travel Manitoba has been one of the organizations working with those in North Dakota to get more tourism dollars both ways over the border. During this time of turmoil, the organization has been working to let more Canadians know there are a number of travel options in Manitoba.

“Tourism is a $2 billion a year industry,” explains Travel Manitoba Strategic Engagement Vice President Louise Waldman. “It is a tariff-free export sector and it creates directly and indirectly 25,000 jobs in every corner of the province. A lot of those jobs are small and medium-sized business, multi-generational family businesses.”

Since last year, many of Manitoba’s school divisions have also decided it’s not the time to travel south of the border. No one was available for an interview from the Pembina Trails School Division, but it confirmed to Global News that any school trip requests to the U.S. would not be approved by the division at this time.