While many Americans are expressing their appreciation for Canadian tourists, our northern neighbors are feeling hurt…and spending their money elsewhere. So how are businesses near the northern border getting by?
Read the full transcript below:
Lucas Willard: This is WAMC’s Northeast Notebook. I’m Lucas Willard. The trade war with Canada has dragged on. Business owners in Northern New York and Vermont and dealing with a loss of Canadian customers and high tariffs. And while many Americans are expressing their appreciation for Canadian tourists, our northern neighbors feeling hurt…and spending their money elsewhere. So how are businesses getting by? And could the trade war have an influence on the midterm elections?
Keshia Clukey is a native of the Adirondacks and is a reporter for Newsday. As late summer rolled into fall, Keshia published a story about how northern New York business were faring with the impacts of the United States’ trade war with Canada. And, as Keshia found, New York began seeing a drop in Canadian tourism long before failed trade talks between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney fell apart this August. Rather, it began last year after Trump began threatening tariffs, disparaging former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and calling Canada America’s 51st State.
Keshia Clukey: Just fewer and fewer Canadians coming down. A lot of the marinas were hit hard because they're not putting their boats on Lake Champlain anymore. And then, businesses that are close to the marinas, like Iris's Cafe and Wine Bar in Plattsburgh, are not seeing those people walking up from the marina, that foot traffic that they see in in the summer. We saw places like Ausable Chasm are not getting Canadians, and their Canadians make up about 40%, I believe, of their visitors. Their campsite there was even more impacted.
Lucas Willard: And, as Keshia puts it, the latest disruption comes right after many businesses thought the supply chain issues and lack of international tourism brought on by COVID were behind them.
Keshia Clukey: I thought that was interesting. That there's this concern that hey, we finally built back our tourism after COVID, or at least we're on our way to it, and now we have this other hit. So, what does that mean for the future?
Lucas Willard: Lucy Tompkins is a reporter for Vermont outlet Seven Days. She says the current trade war also feels different than COVID, or even after the delays and disruptions caused by border closures after the 9/11 attacks.
Lucy Tompkins: This rupture feels a lot more personal, and kind of emotional, and I think the tariffs are one thing, but the rhetoric and the fallout from that rhetoric has been the kind of bigger issue in some of these communities.
Lucas Willard: In Lucy’s recent cover story, she reports on her visit to a community that straddles both sides of the U.S.-Canada line – Beebe, Quebec and Beebe Plain, in Derby, Vermont. They share emergency services, a water system, and a sense of being one community…well, until now.
Lucy Tomkins: On the Vermont side of…sort of sadness and regret, and for some people, kind of wanting to, like, apologize and reach out to Canadians to say, you know, “This isn't how we want it to be. You belong here. We want to preserve this relationship.” And then, on the Canadian side, I think the feeling is a bit more like, you know, “We've been wronged here, and we're gonna stand together in solidarity, as a country, and do that by sort of turning our backs on the U.S.”
Lucas Willard: The attitude shared by many Canadians, that they’re ready to turn their backs on the U.S., is wearing on American businesses. Art Lussi is President of the Grandview Lake Placid. He works at the Grandview Hotel and manages 45 holes at the Lake Placid Club Golf Courses. The trade war has brought a lot of changes. Art had to start buying top-dressing – which is a kind of sand for keeping the greens healthy – from an American supplier after his Canadian source got too expensive due to tariffs. And he says ICE detained workers at his hotel. And less people have been coming to play golf.
Art Lussi: We've had this tournament 25 years, and half of our teams are from Canada because it's called the Canadian-American Golf Challenge, and it's a Ryder Cup format and the Canadian teams - I think only one came and there's usually about 12 teams that come.
Lucas Willard: After golf season ends, it’s time for hockey. The rink opens for youth hockey in mid-October. And just like golf, many Canadian players are not hitting the ice in Lake Placid.
Art Lussi: There's definitely less demand in the market for these weekends, which, in this time of year, we're extremely appreciative of - because it's off season until Christmas - and so from mid-October to mid-December, these Canadian-American hockey tournaments are our lifeblood during this time of year.
Lucas Willard: The changing attitudes and bruised budgets could have an impact in the upcoming midterms. Many areas of northern New York and Vermont are heavily Republican. Lucy Tompkins interviewed two registered Republicans who operate retail stores in Newport, Vermont. One owner, Chis Hamblett, referred to the tariff struggles “a necessary evil” but stood by the president.
Lucy Tompkins: He sells a lot of sugaring equipment, and all of it is from a Quebec-based company. And he said, you know, in the past there were Vermont-based companies that produced this equipment and sold it, but over time, Canada has sort of taken over that industry. And he said, you know, “Maybe the tariffs could help us rebuild that here.” And I think that was his hope.
Lucas Willard: Another, registered Republican who owns a convenience store right down the road, is Michael Marcotte. He’s also preparing to retire from the Vermont House of Representatives after 22 years in January. Marcotte, Lucy reports, voted for President Trump in 2016. But, in 2024, cast his vote for Democrat Kamala Harris.
Lucy Tompkins: He felt like alienating Canada is a bad thing for Vermont and for this region, and that it was just going to hurt local businesses as it has been by losing Canadian visitors. And yeah, he said he felt like a trust had been broken that he wouldn't see restored in his lifetime.
Lucas Willard: As for Art Lussi in Lake Placid, he’s currently a registered Democrat but says he grew up as a Republican. And, he’s voted for outgoing six-term Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik “every time.”
Art Lussi: As you probably know, Northern New York is a dominant Republican zone and district, and I believe Elise has done a really good job of representing us.
Lucas Willard: This time, though, he’s switching his vote. He plans to cast his ballot for Democrat Blake Gendebien over Amsterdam business owner and Trump acolyte Anthony Constantino.
Art Lussi: This year, to me, it's a no-brainer. I'm a big Blake Gendebien fan.
Lucas Willard: But, for all of the intense political feelings, there’s at least one pair of cross-border business orders that are celebrating their commonality – cheesemaking.
Lucy Tompkins: Both have recently had their markets abroad killed by the tariff war.
Lucas Willard: The cheesemakers behind Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, Vermont and Fromegerie La Station in Compton, Quebec gathered for a party in September. As Lucy reports, the owners of La Station traveled over the border to deliver the prize they had won in 2024 and 2025, the American Cheese Society’s highest honor, its Best of Show trophy. It was Jasper Hill Farm that won the competition this year.
Lucy Tompkins: They don't see each other enemies or competitors. They said, “The cheese world is so small and what we do is so hard and so even at a moment like this, we just want to stay friends and stay connected, and hope that things will eventually calm down, and we can, you know, just get back to the to the business of cheesemaking.”
Lucas Willard: Northeast Notebook is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Our editor is Diane Devore. Music by Eduardo Rivera. You can subscribe to this show anywhere you get your podcasts. I’m Lucas Willard, thanks for listening.
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