{"id":133012,"date":"2025-04-09T03:29:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T03:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/as-trump-ignites-tariff-war-a-us-city-is-embracing-canadians-with-all-its-heart-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-04-09T03:29:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T03:29:18","slug":"as-trump-ignites-tariff-war-a-us-city-is-embracing-canadians-with-all-its-heart-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/as-trump-ignites-tariff-war-a-us-city-is-embracing-canadians-with-all-its-heart-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"As Trump ignites tariff war, a US city is embracing Canadians with all its heart – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

An estimated 300,000 Canadians visit Palm Springs each year and Trump\u2019s levies threaten tourism in the region
Worried that Donald Trump\u2019s policies are scaring away Canadians, a key segment of their tourist industry, a California resort city has put up \u201cPalm Springs Loves Canada\u201d signs across its downtown.
\u201cIt was a gesture to let our Canadian visitors know that what happens in Washington DC, is not the way that Palm Springs is looking at Canada<\/a>,\u201d Ron deHarte, the city\u2019s mayor, said of the signs, which were installed on Friday.
An estimated 300,000 Canadians each year visit the Palm Springs region, DeHarte said, some of them staying for months at a time as they trade Canada\u2019s harsh winters for southern California\u2019s reliable warmth. But the mayor said he has been hearing from some Canadians that the US government\u2019s tariffs, and its rhetoric about Canada, is unacceptable to them, and that they\u2019re responding by cancelling their annual trips, pledging they\u2019re \u201cnot spending a dime in Palm Springs\u201d.
DeHarte said he understands that perspective, but he and other local officials are sending a \u201cpositive message\u201d and hoping Canadians will reconsider.
Canadian visitors spend an estimated $300m annually in the region, and \u201crepresent about 2,000 jobs in the hospitality industry\u201d, deHarte said. \u201cSo when we have a group of visitors who are leaving early, or deciding not to come next year, that\u2019s significant. That\u2019s our restaurants, our stores, theater, arts, it\u2019s all of our businesses. The maids, the janitors, everyone is touched by the economic impact, or the loss of those dollars coming in.\u201d
If Canadians choose not to come back to Palm Springs next winter, that will have more than just a financial impact, the mayor added.
\u201cThey volunteer. You see Canadians at our functions and events. They\u2019re getting involved any way they possibly can,\u201d deHarte said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a visitor coming to sit and hang out by the pool. These are really people who are part of our community.\u201d
The new pro-Canada signs were first reported by The Palm Springs Post<\/a>, which noted that a local carwash, Desert Hand Wash, had installed a large \u201cWe Love Canada\u201d sign even before city officials had taken action.
\u201cThe Canadian business is 30% of my business in the winter. It\u2019s essential we do something significant,\u201d Bob Smiland, the car wash\u2019s owner, told the Palm Springs Post.
Palm Springs, a desert oasis two hours outside of Los Angeles, is known for its vacation homes and large gay community. In 2018, it elected the US\u2019s first all-LGBTQ+ city council<\/a>, a milestone that came as an afterthought<\/a> in a city where inclusion had long been taken for granted. A recent Palm Springs protest against Trump and Elon Musk drew thousands of people<\/a>, a local newspaper reported, and demonstrators have also been picketing outside a local Tesla showroom for weeks<\/a>.
But what some locals describe as the Palm Springs \u201cliberal bubble\u201d has not been enough to insulate it from the effects of Trump\u2019s trade, immigration and anti-LGBTQ+ polices \u2013 as well as Trump\u2019s repeated claims that Canada should become the \u201c51st state\u201d<\/a> in the US, while mockingly referring<\/a> to then prime minister Justin Trudeau as a \u201cgovernor\u201d.
In early April, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney announced a 25% tax on US cars<\/a>, calling Trump\u2019s tariffs on Canadian steel and automobiles \u201cunjustified\u201d.
As Canadian sports fans have started booing the US national anthem<\/a> and some Canadians have adopted the phrase \u201celbows up\u201d<\/a> to show their combative attitude towards US aggression, there are some signs that the political conflict may also be influencing Canadian tourism to the US.
Two Canadian budget airlines, WestJet and Flair, have reduced their flights between western Canada and Palm Springs in recent weeks, citing reduced demand.
\u201cAs a result of the current political environment, we have seen a downward shift in demand for trans-border bookings between Canada and the US,\u201d Josh Yates, a spokesperson for WestJet, told the Guardian. \u201cNotably, we are seeing increased demand for sun destinations across Mexico and the Caribbean, and to Europe.\u201d
Multiple local real estate agents in the Palm Springs area have spoken out about Canadians contacting them about selling their California vacation homes in response to Trump\u2019s agenda.
\u201cWithin the first two weeks of tariffs talks, I had sellers calling and saying, \u2018We\u2019re out of here, Trump has irrevocably damaged the relationship between Canada and the United States,\u2019\u201d Palm Springs realtor Sherri Dettman told Fast Company<\/a>.
Another Palm Springs realtor, Paul Kaplan, published a blog post outlining the financial factors Canadians<\/a> should consider when selling a US vacation home.
A Canadian-American who lives in Palm Springs told the Los Angeles Times that a group of his gay Canadian friends had cancelled their spring trip<\/a> to Coachella to see Lady Gaga because of Trump\u2019s policies.
Local officials are paying close attention to these indicators, though they said the full impact of Canadians cancelling trips to Palm Springs is not likely to be felt until the coming winter season.
\u201cThe economic impact, it\u2019s going to make a difference this year, for sure, but where we\u2019re really going to feel it is if this turmoil continues into next year,\u201d said deHarte.
A 2021 study found that Canadians owned 7% of vacation properties<\/a> in the area, a higher proportion than residents of any other foreign country. Compared with the average Palm Springs visitor, Canadians tended to stay longer and spend more<\/a>, a 2017 economic analysis found.
\u201cWe do have to hope that this turmoil in DC is going to be short-lived, and that everybody can get back to their daily lives, and not be in fear of how our pocketbooks and livelihoods are going to be affected,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n

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An estimated 300,000 Canadians visit Palm Springs each year and Trump\u2019s levies threaten tourism in the regionWorried that Donald Trump\u2019s policies are scaring away Canadians, a key segment of their tourist industry, a California resort city has put up \u201cPalm Springs Loves Canada\u201d signs across its downtown.\u201cIt was a gesture to let our Canadian visitors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}