Amid tariff and trade war talk, small-town mayors try to keep it friendly on border

A man drives a tractor as another follows behind while laying down rows of plastic in preparation to grow cantaloupes at a farm in Osoyoos, B.C., on Sunday, May 13, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff likens the situation facing the scenic B.C. community just a few kilometres from the U.S. border to that of her own family.

She said she’s been asked recently how she deals with her Canadian daughter being married to an American, given the current tensions between the two nations, fuelled by U.S. tariff threats and talk of annexation.

“Well, of course, I’m going to go down and see my grandchildren. Why wouldn’t I?” said McKortoff.

She said that her south Okanagan city of about 5,500 had little interest in worsening tensions with the United States, given that they “have been our best neighbours for hundreds of years,” with a big portion of the city economy relying on U.S. tourists visiting nearby wineries and farmers markets in the summer.

Bigger municipalities in B.C. have been talking of boycotts and reciprocal action against the threat of American tariffs on Canadian exports, with Vancouver’s council voting to direct procurement contracts to Canadian businesses instead of American ones, and suburban New Westminster asking staff to halt non-essential work trips to the United States.

But McKortoff and mayors of some other small border communities say they can’t afford to antagonize American customers and friends or have no interest in doing so.

“We need to be open to any kind of option that will allow us to do business and to make sure that we understand what the concerns are on both sides … and see how we can best deal with the situation because it changes often,” she said.

She said Osoyoos businesses head south on Highway 97 daily to get products from the United States and she had no problem with that.

“My job is to support our local businesses. I always have pushed that since I’ve been on council and I think they may have product from the States, but they’re local. They work here. They support this community, therefore I support them,” she said.

Tom Morphet, mayor of Haines Borough, Alaska, recently wrote to Diane Strand, mayor of nearby Haines Junction, Yukon, to reaffirm a friendship the communities have shared for years.

“As northerners, we sometimes have as much in common with our Canadian neighbours as we do with our own countrymen in the southern latitudes,” he wrote this month.

Morphet said in an interview that his love for Canada began 20 years ago when his truck got stuck in a mountain pass during a blizzard. It was a Canadian who pulled his vehicle out, then let him follow his tail lights for 240 kilometres.

“We wrote the letter to reinforce this great relationship we’ve always had here close to the border,” said Morphet, adding that many residents “were born in Canada and have dual citizenship, and we have our First Nations who have always travelled freely in this part of the world.”

Morphet said residents in Haines Borough feel more connected to Canada than to the “lower 48.”

“We have lots of loonies and toonies in our cash registers. We all love that $5 bill that had the hockey game on the backside. I mean, we love Canada being Canada,” said Morphet.

Strand said the “border doesn’t mean that much” to either community.

Residents of both travel back and forth, especially during harvesting season. Alaskans crossed into Canada for moose hunting while Yukoners travelled to Alaska for eulachon fishing.

Both rely on each other to boost their economies, said Strand.

“We are a family and we are friends and the border never meant anything to us years ago. It was the Canadian government and the U.S., that put this border up. We have so many family members and we need to make sure that we maintain those ties,” said Strand.

‘Shooting ourselves in the foot’

In Rossland, B.C., Mayor Andy Morel, said the “beautiful little mountain community” in the Kootenays needed to walk a “fine line” in not upsetting their U.S. neighbours, who are a big part of the local economy.

He said 60 to 75 per cent of the city’s economy was driven by American tourists, with the city well known for its skiing and mountain biking culture.

“From the perspective of wanting to support our own economy, we do rely on U.S. visitors strongly, and we’d be shooting ourselves in the foot … if we started to boycott and to bad mouth our American tourists and friends on the other side of the border,” said Morel.

About 130 kilometres to the west, the town of Creston, B.C., is just across the border from deep-red Idaho, and the town of Bonners Ferry, which greets visitors with a sign saying: “Welcome to Trump country. Love God, guns, family, freedom and your neighbor.”

Creston Mayor Arnold DeBoon said seeing the sign made him “uncomfortable … in Canada, we don’t have that strong connection to guns, and we don’t want that in Canada.”

He said the cross-border sentiment had “cooled off” due to the recent tensions over Trump’s proposed tariffs. But he hoped to be able to maintain a “friendly relationship.”

“I don’t think we want to be impolite or destroy a relationship that’s out there,” said DeBoon.

“And I do believe one of the things we should be doing to this point, is welcome more from the south because of the exchange rate, and just let them know that if they want to come to Canada, the dollar will go far, and they will enjoy the country and the scenery.”

Back in Rossland, Morel said that like many he’s worried about the country’s economy if the tariffs go ahead, and Canadians will have to “fight back as best we can.”

But on “a face-to-face, person-to-person” basis, Morel wants to keep things friendly with the community’s American neighbours.

He said many residents recognize it’s the U.S. administration causing the tensions, and not every American supports Trump.

“There’s a border there, but many of them love our community. They come to our community every year, they spend money, they invest in the community, and (we) will continue to welcome them,” said Morel.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 25, 2025.

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press