{"id":62800,"date":"2026-05-27T08:04:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T08:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/62800\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T08:04:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T08:04:42","slug":"avoiding-america-canadian-boycott-costs-vermont-tens-of-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/62800\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding America: Canadian boycott costs Vermont tens of millions"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – The Canadian boycott has cost Vermont tens of millions of dollars during President Donald Trump\u2019s presidency. Canada is Vermont\u2019s largest trading partner, and the state sees around three-quarters of a million Canadian visitors every year, spending over $150 million.<\/p>\n

Businesses are hurting roughly one year after Canadian tourism took a dip amid tit-for-tat tariffs and President Trump\u2019s rhetoric about making Canada the 51st state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat uncertainty started, and there were a number of ripple effects through Vermont\u2019s economy,\u201d said Amy Spear, president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n

Since the start of Trump\u2019s term, Vermont commerce officials estimate a near $75 million loss in spending from Canadians. The hardest hit area is meals, rooms, and alcohol sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has not gotten much better. If anything, it\u2019s only solidified the behavior. It\u2019s the \u2018not right now\u2019 behavior that we\u2019re seeing,\u201d Spear said.<\/p>\n

Tim Tierney is with the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development and works to recruit businesses to Vermont, mostly from Quebec. \u201cWe knew right away there was going to be some issues, and a lot of it was because of the rhetoric,\u201d Tierney said. \u201cThe reality of it is we need you, you need us.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said some business deals and expansions have been put on ice because of the tariffs. But certain industries are more resilient: energy production and sales, and cross-border supply chains, especially in the aerospace and semiconductor realm. \u201cThe businesses realize we have to continue doing business. We\u2019ve always done business with these people, we trust them, we want them, we need their product, they do it right, and it\u2019s both sides of the border,\u201d Tierney said.<\/p>\n

Vermont leaders see the Canadian boycott as a big problem and are actively trying to win back visitors and their tourism dollars.<\/p>\n

One method is symbolic gestures, like Burlington renaming Church Street \u201cRue Canada\u201d<\/a> and state brass taking a boat ride with Canadian dignitaries.<\/p>\n

Another method is money matters: cash discounts at hotels, retail, restaurants, and experiences across Vermont, and the \u201c100% Love for Canada\u201d marketing campaign<\/a> to show the Green Mountains are ready to welcome neighbors back when they\u2019re ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure we\u2019re maintaining those relationships so that there is that awareness when it\u2019s time and we\u2019re ready, but we understand right now,\u201d Spear said.<\/p>\n

Leaders say it\u2019s about doing what they can now, but the \u201cwhen they\u2019re ready\u201d factor is key, with big geopolitical factors that are largely out of their control.<\/p>\n

Vermont border businesses see mixed results year after Canadian tourism dip<\/p>\n

The degree to which Canadians are avoiding America can be tracked at the northern border.<\/p>\n

According to the Canadian government, land travel to the United States was down 31% in 2025 compared to 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cA year ago was definitely the worst,\u201d said Georgia Gould, executive director of the Kingdom Trails Association.<\/p>\n

The East Burke mountain bike mecca never really recovered since the pandemic, Gould said. Add to that, new competition and losing Canadians customers — a big chunk of their customer base — and the start of last season was a big blow. \u201cIt\u2019s been a challenge, you know?\u201d Gould said.<\/p>\n

Like Kingdom Trails, businesses all along the border felt the absence of northern neighbors, but not all in the same way. Despite the decline in visitors, Jay Peak Resort thrived. \u201cBest year in our history,\u201d said the resort\u2019s Steve Wright. Though more Americans hit the slopes, he says their Canadian visitors were missed. \u201cWe saw our hockey business off by about 25%. Our ski business was a little bit better, but it was still off our historic numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

While both businesses felt an eerie absence of their Canadian regulars, another factor out of their control played a big role this past year: the weather.<\/p>\n

The day WCAX visited, it was wet and gloomy, and Kingdom Trails seemed deserted. For them, it was deja vu. \u201cThe rainy, cold weekends, Memorial Day, Victoria Day last year. So, it was just a double whammy,\u201d Gould said.<\/p>\n

For Jay Peak, the seasonal precipitation had the opposite effect. Mountains out west saw very little snow, but Jay Peak was buried in it. \u201cThose eastern skiers that traditionally make a western trip all stayed east, and they went to where the snow was. Which was Jay Peak,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n

With international headlines focused on other global conflicts, business owners like Gould and Wright hope the relative quiet will balance things out. And so far, that optimism seems substantiated.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeason passes for the FY 27 season — the early rates — have come and gone and the Canadian index of those purchases has stayed pretty high,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnecdotally, we\u2019ve just had a lot more inquiries from Canadians and phone calls, emails, things like that. So, I mean, really looking optimistically toward this next season,\u201d Gould said.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WCAX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – The Canadian boycott has cost Vermont tens of millions of dollars during President Donald…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26919,26920,525,17,116,6339,6685,28,8055,26918,8053],"class_list":["post-62800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-avoiding-america","tag-boycott","tag-business","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-tariff","tag-tourism","tag-trump","tag-vermont","tag-vt","tag-wcax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}