Good waterfalls make good neighbours: Behind the drop in Canadian visitors to the U.S.

“But to target Canada? I wouldn’t personally poke the eye of my best friend. Diplomacy doesn’t have to become insulting. Negotiations are only cranky if you make them cranky.”
— Robert Restaino

Robert Restaino is the mayor of Niagara Falls — not the city in southern Ontario, but the significantly smaller American city across the mist.

In an interview with Maclean’s, Restaino explains why he is like other border mayors who have been going on a charm offensive to win back favour with Canadians who have been offended by Donald Trump’s insults and tariffs.

Amid the article’s opening:

“Robert Restaino, the mayor of Niagara Falls, New York, is so, so sorry—really. He’s watched as Canadian manufacturers have scrapped contracts in his city, and as its hotels and bars have emptied of uber-polite patrons. (The number of Canadians entering New York state dropped by one-fifth in 2025.)”

Restaino’s interview comes at a time when Trump has not only yanked tariffs higher again, but is threatening trade retaliation because of smoke from Canadian wildfires that has drifted over the border.

Niagara Falls is hardly alone. Canadian visits to Las Vegas dropped by 252,000 in 2025, compared to the year before, sparking the city — which depends mightily on foreign visitors — to woo Canadians with incentives like “at par” pricing. In New England, many tourist operators have long relied on Canadian traffic (particularly from Quebec) to make ends meet.

There’s a bigger picture, of course: the U.S. is the only major destination in the world to see a drop in visitors, while all others have been gaining in tourism revenue.

Canadians of course are a good target: we’ve long been the major and easiest trading partner. But the repulsion of 2025 seems to be sticking, according to data released last week by Statistics Canada. Canadians altogether spent about $3.3 billion less on American travel last year, and instead are spending those loonies in other countries.

There of course has been an “elbows up” gut response among a lot of Canadians about the U.S., travel, buying their produce and liquor and goods. We’re now well into the second year.

I saw an interesting conversation play out at the gym some weeks ago when one fellow described booking a getaway down south, which I think was Florida. His friend’s head whipped around, and the look of disappointment spoke volumes.

I’ll be curious to see how these fences get mended in the years to come. For now, it’s been a remarkable case in changing consumer behaviour.