Maine governor comes face to face with Canadian travel fears
CBC
Maine's governor was confronted on Tuesday with the reality of how fearful some New Brunswickers are about visiting the United States while U.S. President Donald Trump is in the White House.
Janet Mills was in Fredericton for the second day of a tour through Atlantic Canada, hoping to reverse — or at least slow — a steep decline in the number of tourists crossing the border to visit Maine.
She and Premier Susan Holt delivered a joint ode to cross-border connections to a Fredericton Chamber of Commerce audience largely concerned about the impact of tariffs on their businesses.
But two questions from participants brought into sharp relief how immigration raids and the rolling back of trans rights is scaring some Canadians away from U.S. visits.
"A lot of members of the queer community — a lot of Canadians feel unsafe, Canadians who are 2SLGBTQI+ absolutely feel unsafe going there," said Vivian Myers-Jones, a member of the Saint John Pride board.
"It's a terrifying thing going down there right now."
Myers-Jones plans to travel to Bangor this weekend for Pride events there as part of a partnership between organizers in the two cities, but said many other members of the community are afraid to go.
Another member of the audience, business owner David Dennis, said his Venezuelan-born wife vetoed a planned trip to Maine this year despite his attempts to assure her that having Canadian citizenship would protect her at the border.
"Her fellow countrymen had been targeted for deportation and her comment was, 'I'm not going to the States this year,'" he told the two political leaders.
Even before the question-and-answer session, Holt herself used the U.S. political situation to encourage New Brunswickers to travel within the province this summer — as she has been since the Trump administration first announced tariffs on Canadian exports.
"Lots of people don't feel safe in the U.S. right now and for good reason, and until that changes I think the climate for visitors will be difficult," she said.
Mills said Maine has among the lowest crime rates in the U.S. and Canadians should feel secure hiking, skiing, swimming and shopping there.
"You can do that safely," she said.
She acknowledged as governor she has no control over how the U.S. Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement operate in the state.
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