Some Canadian snowbirds still flying south amid tensions with U.S.

A retirement community in Port Charlotte, on the west coast of Florida, has its Canadian patriotism fiercely on display.

Within the Maple Leaf Golf and Country Club, a 115-hectare park created in 1977, a Toronto Blue Jays flag flies outside one house, while another property has a garden statue of a dog wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey.

Its streets, such as Niagara Crescent, pay homage to well-known Canadian communities. Golf carts zipping around the gated community sport license plates from Saskatchewan, Ontario and the Northwest Territories.

The park began by bringing Canadians down on junkets. Now, it is a place where Americans and Canucks co-exist side by side: according to numbers Maple Leaf provided, Canadians own about 40 per cent of its 1,112 homes.

“Canadians created this park and it’s always been a collaboration between both of us,” said Robyn Thomas, a resident and realtor at Maple Leaf.

"That’s what makes this park so special."

The number of passenger vehicles crossing the U.S.-Canada border, from January to October, dropped by almost 20 per cent compared to the same span in 2024, according to a recent report prepared by the Democrat minority of the U.S. Congress’s joint economic committee. 

Amid a tariff war and perceived threats of annexation, some Canadian snowbirds have opted to avoid the United States.

Yet, people continue to flock south to Maple Leaf.

Jeff Papiez, who is on the park’s board of directors, is among them. He has been travelling to the community for 31 years — initially to visit his husband’s parents, then later as a retiree who makes the journey seasonally from Minden, Ont., a community about 140 kilometres northeast of Toronto.

“It is a topic of discussion, but it doesn’t override the reasons and rationale of why they’re here,” Papiez said, when asked about the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump, the trade war and the U.S. government's 51st state comments.

“They are concerned in watching what’s happening, because when there is that uncertainty, there is a little discomfort in that.”

Despite some snowbirds looking elsewhere, Papiez believes park residents are still flocking to the community because of the bonds forged between neighbours, the location and the activities, which range from pickleball, to golf, to swimming.

Silvio Conte of Gananoque, Ont., a town about 265 kilometres east of Toronto, bought his Maple Leaf home in 2020, and spends roughly half the year in Florida.