The Topline
- Canadians have been boycotting US products and travel in response to President Donald Trump’s “51st State” annexation threats and ongoing trade war
- Goldman Sachs has warned that the fallout from Trump’s trade-war tactics could cost the US upwards of $90 billion USD in combined losses
TOURISM WAY DOWN, BUDDY!
The thing about pissing off your next-door-neighbour is they stop comin’ ‘round for dinner. And, yeah, Canadians are pissed.
In February alone, crossings into the U.S. dropped 23 per cent year-over-year, and air bookings fell 40 per cent. Flight bookings for March through September of this year were down between 71–76 per cent compared to the same period in 2024.
Keep in mind that even a 10 per cent decline in Canadian travelers could cost the US as much as $2.1 billion USD in spending and 14,000 jobs. Big numbers!
Consumer behaviour has also shifted significantly, with US alcohol in particular feeling the pain. An Angus Reid poll found 98 per cent of Canadians sampled are now looking for “Made in Canada” products when shopping (a frankly stupefying statistic). About 85 per cent are replacing U.S. products with Canadian products.
So yeah, ol’ Goldy-boy Sachs predicts upwards of $90 billion in losses from combined tourism revenue and product exports in 2025, which includes Canadian impacts but also spans other affected markets as well.
Keep those Elbows Up….?
CANADA’S ECONOMY IS ITSY-BITSY TEENIE-WEENIE (comparatively)
The sobering truth for all these upward-facing elbows is the economic losses that the US faces from these Canadian boycotts will barely register. Total Canadian economic activity accounts for about 2 per cent of US GDP, which is something akin to a dry fart in the open ocean breeze.
The impacted industries – tourism, alcohol – are specifically consumer-based. Meanwhile, most cross-border trade is business-to-business, not reliant on individual Canadian shoppers. Canada continues to buy US goods in bulk and Canada’s entire economy still depends on US supply chains.
That $90-billion-in-losses figure you (hopefully) read in the Topline? That number sounds enormous, but the US economy is roughly US $28 trillion. The impact is .3 per cent. A dry fart indeed.
So while the impacts are real and significant to specific industries, the US economy is steamrolling along just fine (for now).
