Canada's Souring National Mood
Disaster relief falters in Western NC
Seven weeks into the Trump Administration with repeated statements on making Canada the 51st state and threatening a 25% tariff on Canadian goods has left relations between the two countries at an all time low. Canada is the U.S.’s largest tourism market and according to U.S. travel accounts for $250.5 billion in visitor spending each year.
While the President has temporarily paused most of the Canadian tariffs, the impact of the tense diplomatic relations could be significant and long last. Last week, a YouGov poll found that 50 percent of Canadians now view the U.S. as either “unfriendly” or an “enemy,” while just 6 percent of Americans feel the same about Canada.
Last week, also brought some good reporting on what the proposed tariffs mean for U.S. tourism:
—From NPR: As Canadians cancel trips due to Trump, the U.S. tourism industry could lose billions
— From the BBC: Bourbon is out, patriotism is in — how Canadians are facing Trumps threats head on
For additional background, attached below is Brand USA’s Canadian market profile, which includes 2023 economic impact numbers.
Even if the Canadian tariffs aren’t fully implemented, the Trump White House may want to look to tourism to repair the broken relationship between the U.S. and Canada.
As the disaster recovery effort in the North Carolina mountains falters, the Washington Post had good piece over the weekend on what went wrong, Trump vowed to help the N.C. mountain rebuild after Helene. Frustration remains.
Lastly, the National Heritage Areas got some good news late last week. Their funding under the current continuing resolution is no longer on hold. DOI has approved the NHA program agreements and deemed them in compliance with the recent executive orders. However, no timeline has been shared for getting task agreements processed through the Financial Assistance offices. A significant backlog is expected, as the FA folks have not been able to process anything since mid-January. The good news is that the NHA’s should are able to access their FY25 funding shortly.