At a friendly diner on the U.S. border, patrons react to Trump's inauguration

At a diner 230 metres from a United States border station in Rouses Point, N.Y., near Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Que., Brittany Swift sat with her 22-month-old toddler Milo and her 67-year-old father Keith Hollman on their way back from a ski trip to Quebec's Mont-Tremblant.

The trio ordered a club and some fries as a television mounted in the corner above them aired President Donald Trump's second inauguration into office. Hollman's phone speakers were also broadcasting the ceremony. He said he'd been eager to make it back into the States just in time.

The family has differing political views, but say they do their best to keep those from dividing them. 

"We try to be accepting of each other's differences and try not to talk about it if it gets too heated," said Swift, who lives in Grand Isle, Vt., about 50 kilometres south of the Quebec border, and who voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 U.S. election. 

While she was disappointed Harris lost, Hollman said he was "pleased, very pleased" about Trump's win. 

He listed border security as one of his top issues this election, though he's always voted Republican. 

He named the southern border but noted the northern one was growing in prominence. 

"Nefarious folks find different ways," Hollman said.

The diner where the family ate is called Best Friends Family Diner and finds itself at the intersection of New York and Vermont states and right next to the Quebec border. It's also just a few kilometres from Roxham Road, an unofficial border crossing where thousands of asylum seekers walked into Canada before it effectively closed in 2023. 

Since then, thousands of migrants have taken the opposite route — crossing using clandestine routes into the U.S. 

While the amount of illegal crossings pale in comparison to the southern U.S. border with Mexico, the northern border has been getting more attention from Trump leading up to his second inauguration and prompting him to threaten tariffs on Canadian imports if Ottawa does not reinforce its border security measures. 

The scrutiny on the northern border has translated into an increase in surveillance, with camera towers now dotting the portion of the U.S. border known as the Swanton area, covering New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. 

Monday afternoon, about 100 kilometres away on a highway in Vermont south of Stanstead, Que., a U.S. border agent was shot and killed, according to Vermont State Police, who provided no additional details.

Both Hollman and his daughter agreed they wanted the U.S. to keep a good relationship with Canada, though, and didn't believe tariffs would be good for either country.