Richard Mroz says he and his wife Pat have been visiting the United States each winter for more than four decades. This month, they were looking forward to towing their RV trailer down to Texas for a three-week trip.
Reviewing maps and travel brochures over the Christmas holidays, they decided to visit the state’s South Padre Island, near the Mexican border. They dreamed of lounging around the tropical island’s white-sand beaches, visiting the nature preserves and seeing unique wildlife.
“We needed a good break from winter,” Mroz, 70, a retired project manager from Bracebridge, Ont., said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday.
Mroz said he and his 69-year-old wife had saved about $5,000 for the dream trip, expecting the gas and meals to be expensive.
But last weekend, they ditched their plans to travel south of the border for the first time, deciding instead to vacation in Rome and the Netherlands for three weeks in April.
“Once all the problems arose with the Trump tariffs and our devalued Canadian dollar, we decided that we would cancel that,” Mroz said.
They are among many Canadians who are protesting U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats by joining the “buy Canadian” movement, which includes boycotting U.S. travel, goods and services.
Impact of travel boycott on U.S.
Canadian travellers like Mroz and his wife have had an impact on the American economy. International visitors to the U.S. mainly come from Canada, according to the U.S. Travel Association, a non-profit group representing the travel industry.
How impactful are Canadians? The travel association says in 2024, 20.4 million visits produced US$20.5 billion in spending and supported 140,000 American jobs. If Canadian travel decreased by 10 per cent, the group says it could mean two-million fewer visits, US$2.1 billion in lost spending and 14,000 job losses.
With millions of Canadians spending billions on U.S. travel each year, Mroz and his wife didn’t want to contribute to enriching Canada’s neighbour amid the brewing trade war.
The “buy Canadian” movement goes beyond changing travel plans. Mroz says they’re trying to purchase more Canadian items at stores, and if none are available, they opt for non-American ones, such as raspberries from Peru, or oranges from Spain or Morocco. They’re also considering giving up their Netflix or Amazon Prime subscriptions.
“I think it’s a good thing for all of us to do, at least for the next four years, and then perhaps we can return to normal,” he said, referring to the end of Trump’s presidency in January 2029. “I think it’s a time where we all have to stick together, and we all have to be patient.”
Abandoning snowbird lifestyle
Trump’s tariff plans have upset other Canadians who have made similar sacrifices. Donna Marie Kennedy, 75, says she was so upset with the U.S. president that she and her housemate are quitting their snowbird lifestyle.
While both retirees were enjoying Arizona’s pleasant desert climate, they decided to give up their winter getaway, selling the trailer they’ve shared for 10 years about three weeks ago.
“We had a trailer down there, which we fondly called our tin-dominium, but we’ve sold that and moved back home to Canada and will not be a snowbird as long as Donald Trump is in office,” Kennedy said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca. She and her housemate just returned to Canada from Arizona on Monday.
“I’m just trying to do my part,” she added.
Kennedy, a retired teacher from Calabogie, Ont., says she also cancelled U.S. subscriptions to platforms like Netflix and will be travelling more within Canada.
She says buying Canadian or non-American products is worthwhile, even if it is more trouble and pricier in some cases.
“I live in the country, but we went into town and it took us twice as long to do our grocery shopping because we had to read all the labels and see where items were coming from,” she said.
Kennedy says she’s reviewing her apps, purchases, subscriptions and companies she deals with, cancelling the American ones. When she decides to cancel something, she says she writes to the companies to let them know she is boycotting U.S. products because she disagrees with Trump’s policies and politics.
She says she doesn’t plan to switch back to her old spending habits while Trump is in office.
“We used to have a good symbiotic relationship with the States, and unfortunately that’s been destroyed, and I think it’s been destroyed for a very long time,” Kennedy said. “I can’t support what’s happening in the United States, and this is my way of doing it.”
But she says it’s important to respect other individuals’ decision not to boycott American goods and services if they can’t afford to do so.
“It is difficult because for so long we’ve had this symbiotic relationship between the two countries where things were shared and you didn’t even question buying American, but (Trump’s) opened a Pandora’s box and I think many Canadians, if not most, will try and buy Canadian,” she said.
Though Kennedy has given up the snowbird lifestyle, she sees something positive from the protests over tariffs.
“I think (Trump has) awoken a sleeping giant to tell you the truth – Canadians (are) standing up and doing something,” she said. “It made us aware of just how dependent we are in other markets, and I think now that we are more aware, I think most Canadians will try and buy Canadian.”
Kennedy says she’s enjoying the beautiful, sunny and snowy days in her little lakeside town near Ottawa.
“We’ll be playing more bridge up here (and) I’ll start curling again and doing those kinds of things,” she said. “I’m so happy to be home, back home in Canada.”
Change in anniversary plans
The entire Dauk family is on the “buy Canadian” mission.
Jocelyn Dauk, a 50-year-old social worker from Montreal, says she, her husband and two sons, aged 20 and 17, are finding pride in Canada and favouring locally made or produced products “out of principle.”
Dauk felt so strong about the cause that she and her husband have cancelled their 25th wedding anniversary trip to Boston this summer. Instead of spending the week there to soak up the American city’s history, she says they will be visiting Niagara Falls, Ont., for the first time.
Even if their “buy Canadian” actions likely won’t create a big dent in the U.S. economy, she says it’s important to send a “clear message” to the Trump administration.
“There’s this whole mass wave to retaliate, if you will, and go back to our Canadian roots and Canadian pride and be proud of what we’re producing here and support local,” Dauk said.
She adds that it can get complicated in situations where a company is American based, like Amazon, but creates lots of jobs for Canadians.
“If it’s a Canadian-based product that’s being sold through the Amazon markets, I would be more inclined to use it just to keep people employed,” she said. “But if it’s U.S. based, I might be spending a little bit more time trying to find something that’s more local.”
If the tariffs ultimately don’t materialize, she says she and her family don’t plan to go back to their old shopping habits.
“I think we’re always looking towards buying something that’s Canadian-based or Canadian-produced if we can,” she said, noting proudly that one of her sons had spent nearly 15 minutes reading the labels to find a made-in-Montreal salad dressing.
