‘A sink or swim moment’: Rubber duck museum moves from Washington state to B.C.

While Donald Trump's trade war has some B.C. businesses looking to move south, it's had the opposite effect on one American couple.

When border traffic began to pick up after the Covid-19 pandemic, Neil and Krystal King, a couple from Point Roberts, brainstormed ways to lure more British Columbians to the gift shop they owned in the small Washington state enclave.

“We were driving one day, and Krystal looks at me and she literally goes,’ I have the best idea.’ And I was like, ‘Sure, what is it?’ And she goes, ‘We need to do a rubber duck museum. And I was like, ‘That’s the greatest idea I’ve ever heard,” said Neil King.

They opened the Rubber Duck Museum in the back of their Point Roberts gift shop in July 2024. It included antique and rare ducks that told the story of the iconic toy, and thousands of different themed ducks for sale.

“The first day it was open, we had lines going out the door. We were immediately getting calls from places like Roadside America and other small travel publications. We did CNN travel, it was really exciting,” said Krystal King.

Business was going swimmingly, until Donald Trump became president again.

“Those 51st state comments started coming out, and we got flooded with emails from our Canadian visitors, our tourists, our regulars just saying, ‘I am so sorry, I’m not coming down for the next four years,’” said Neil.

Not only were fewer British Columbians crossing the border to visit the Rubber Duck Museum in Point Roberts, the business was also being clobbered by Trump’s ever-changing tariffs on Chinese imports. Almost all of the store’s products are made in China.

“Pretty much overnight, our entire business became unsustainable. We couldn’t get anything for any price point that made sense. We had put so much into this,” said Krystal. “It was a sink or swim moment.”

They decided to move their business to B.C.

“It actually became a no-brainer to come to Canada. We love Canada, that’s why we moved to Point Roberts to begin with. Canada aligns with our values,” said Neil.

The new Rubber Ducks Museum will open in Tsawwassen Mills mall Monday, Dec. 1.

“We are going to have four to five thousand different kinds of ducks and various duck products, such as bath bombs and soaps and, you know, little ducky cards. Anything rubber-duck-related we are trying to bring in,” said Neil.

The museum display will include many older and rare ducks, including two used by rubber duck aficionado Ernie in episodes of Sesame Street.

“We’re really hoping this becomes a place that people can come and just walk out a little happier than they walked in,” said Krystal.

The Kings aren’t able to work at the store until they get their visas sorted out. So they’ve hired local staff and are betting on B.C. embracing the first rubber duck store in Western Canada.

“Our hope is that the store just brings that joy and wonder to Tsawwassen and Canada,” said Neil. “We really want to make sure that this just keeps living on.”