There’s a certain pleasure in watching a stereotype invert itself. Canadians, usually polite, steady, and patient, are now quietly ghosting their most important neighbor. Not with banners or shouting, but with wallets, plane tickets, and shopping carts. The shift is so real, so durable, I almost want to send a thank-you card to Mar-a-Lago for rallying Canadians into a rare moment of unity.
When I first saw the travel numbers, I smiled. Then I realized this isn’t just a protest. It’s a national “SIKE”, and it might last a generation.
In this post, I’ll break down why the so-called “Canadian boycott” of Trump’s America is no longer just a headline, but a lived reality. We’ll look at the data, not just the rhetoric, and explore what this trend reveals about how countries adapt when trust snaps. Because behind the headlines, something quietly historic is happening. Habits are changing, not just opinions.
We’ll dig into why this boycott has real teeth, how Canadians are rewiring their travel and buying patterns, and what these shifts could mean, not just for the US, but for the world. And, as always, I’ll pose the question that no politician wants to: What happens when a friendship gets downgraded, not with a bang, but with a shrug?
Before We Dive In: Critical Thinking for a Noisy Age
I wrote a book called Awake: The Practice of Critical Thinking in an Age of Soft Lies. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by noise, or unsure who to trust, this book was written for you. It’s about how to stay clear, calm, and grounded when the world starts to distort around you.
👉 Learn more about Awake here.
I. Boycotts That Actually Stick
Open any newspaper and you’ll find a boycott. The vast majority die in infancy, more hashtags than habits. For every ten called, maybe one ever really lands, and even those usually fade as the news cycle moves on.
But something strange has happened between Canada and the US. Ten months in, the numbers haven’t snapped back. Instead, it’s as if Canadians looked at Trump’s America and said, “No thanks”, and then just kept walking.
Normally, a boycott is about heat—outrage, peak emotion, a sense of injury. This is different. It’s about cool, measured self-respect. There’s a small, almost mischievous dignity in how it’s playing out. Not an explosion, but an absence.
Travel from Canada to the US has plunged, by air, by car, by nearly every metric that matters. Last month alone, air travel was down almost 24 percent year on year. Car crossings dropped by more than 30 percent. And this wasn’t supposed to happen. After COVID, border travel had started to bounce back toward 2019 levels. Now, that curve has broken.
This isn’t just a blip.
For a country that, before Trump, made up almost a third of all foreign visitors to the US, this is a genuine rupture. Not just a “bad feeling,” but a measurable, persistent absence. Billions in lost spending—a hit to US shops, hotels, and all the little local economies built on familiar Canadian dollars.
A good critical thinker doesn’t just ask what happened, but who benefits from you reacting a certain way. Here, it’s almost as if Canadians have chosen to unplug from the drama. Rather than reacting to every Trump provocation with outrage, they’re choosing indifference directed at the border.
When you look for stories, you find them everywhere. The snowbirds—Canadians who would usually winter in Florida—are booking flights to Costa Rica, Spain, or simply staying put.
II. Signals and Subtleties: Data, Not Just Feelings
Let’s pause for a moment. Boycotts, especially national ones, are easy to exaggerate. One thing is what people say, another is what they do.
But here, the data lines up with the headlines. Outbound travel from Canada isn’t dropping, it’s just redirecting. Canadians are traveling more, but they’re skipping the United States. Some go south, but just a little further—to Mexico, the Caribbean, or across the Atlantic. According to recent numbers, 21 percent of those avoiding the US went to Mexico. Forty-two percent stayed in Canada. Forty-two percent went somewhere else entirely. Only 16 percent decided not to travel at all.
And for those who did stay, there’s another dimension: shopping. The boycott isn’t just about where people go, but what they bring home. Canadian-made products are seeing a significant surge—food, household goods, daily staples. Year on year, sales of “Made in Canada” foods are up more than 10 percent, while US-made goods are down nearly 9 percent. That’s not symbolic. That’s money moving.
Usually, even a stubborn boycott fades after a couple of months. Here, though, the patterns are sticking. Canadians aren’t just avoiding US brands, they’re building new loyalties. Habits, once set, are hard to break.
And this isn’t only about policy. It’s about mood. Polling shows that Canadian concerns about Trump’s America are actually rising. Eighteen percent now say the US is their top worry, double the figure from just a month earlier. When people rewire their travel, their spending, and their anxieties around a neighbor, it means something has shifted at a level deeper than headlines.
There’s a kind of dry comedy to this. As Canadians pull away from the US, Americans themselves are looking north. (I covered this in a previous video—Why Are Americans Leaving The USA For Canada?—and the symmetry is striking.) One country stepping back, another trying to get in. The border, usually a place of passage, has become a mirror.
III. The Consequences: Quiet, Lasting, Strategic
It’s tempting to view all this as just “Trump drama”—temporary, performative, overblown. But that’s the sort of thinking that punishes clear observation.
Actions have consequences. The longer these habits persist, the more the world quietly rebalances.
Trade: As tensions with the US rise, Canadians are starting to look elsewhere. Not just as a statement, but as a strategic necessity. More than half now say Canada should focus more on economic ties with China. That’s up 15 points in just two years. Perhaps most remarkable, 46 percent of Canadians now say the US should be treated as a threat, compared to just 34 percent for China. The “good neighbor” status, for now, is on ice.
This doesn’t mean Canada will become best friends with China. Only a quarter think China should be treated as a true friend or ally. But the signal is clear. Canada, usually one of the most reliable US partners, is hedging.
Policymakers are taking notice. Mark Carney, former Bank of England chief and now a kind of diplomatic free agent, is traveling the world, seeking out new partnerships. The government is openly discussing diversifying exports to the Gulf, to Europe, to Asia. Even Doug Ford, Ontario’s premier, has described Trump as acting like an “enemy.” That’s the sort of rhetoric you expect from an activist, not a conservative provincial leader.
On the US side, the response has been to double down. More tariffs. More bluster. It’s hard to see the logic, unless the goal is to drive partners away.
It’s important to pause and notice the human cost. For ordinary people—families split by a border, snowbirds with empty condos, small businesses losing customers—these shifts aren’t theoretical. They’re lived. The “boycott” is a signal, but also a symptom.
Migration, like trade, is often about safety—emotional, economic, and social. When trust frays, people quietly take their lives elsewhere.
Sources
https://www.emarketer.com/content/canadian-boycotts-gain-steam-anti-us-sentiment-grows
https://nielseniq.com/global/en/insights/report/2025/made-in-canada/
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/251022/dq251022a-eng.htm
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/topics-start/canada-united-states/travel
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/251112/dq251112b-eng.htm
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/251022/t001a-eng.htm
https://nielseniq.com/global/en/insights/report/2025/made-in-canada
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-05/canadians-avoiding-america-are-creating-a-caribbean-travel-boom
https://retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2025/05/majority-of-north-american-consumers-brace-for-long-term-economic-impact-from-tariffs-nielseniq-study-finds/
Closing Reflection: When Indifference is the Real Protest
In the end, this isn’t about Trump, or even just America. It’s about what happens when mutual respect is allowed to corrode. When “special relationships” become transactional, then optional, then background noise.
It’s tempting to see a boycott as a tantrum. But this one isn’t noisy. It’s a habit, formed in the low hum of persistent disrespect. Canadians, never known for bold gestures, are doing something more powerful: changing their patterns, quietly, and perhaps for good. Sometimes, the biggest shifts happen not with a bang, but with a simple, private “enough.” The world doesn’t always change through protest. Sometimes, it changes through indifference—a decision to walk away.
To think clearly here, you have to hold two conflicting ideas at once. The bond between neighbors is precious, but it only works if both sides keep showing up.
If you want to explore these themes further, check out my video on Americans leaving for Canada. It’s a different migration, but the same quiet logic at work.
Stay Awake: Get the Book
If you want to keep your head clear amid all this, I recommend my book,
Awake: The Practice of Critical Thinking in an Age of Soft Lies — linked below.
It’s packed with practical tools to help you stay grounded and hopeful when the headlines blur together.