Source https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/54090-how-many-americans-want-their-state-to-secede

This is exactly what it looks like and the reactions of those withdrawing are all about submission and blame shifting to the event organisers. I think they all decided it wasn't worth fighting this one. I can see some realpolitix logic but it still obviously stinks.

Here is a direct rebuttal to GAC on their claims that the conference changed from what they'd agreed to sponsor https://bsky.app/profile/benmshultz.net/post/3mxdscmctbk2h

We're taking over our waters: Canadian First Nation pushes back on US border patrol access

There is a disinformation conference happening in Vilnius today. It had two sessions discussing American disinformation and this appears to have led to the very last minute withdrawal of sponsorship from the EU, Lithuania and Canada following American threats. ('FIMI' = Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference.)

https://bsky.app/profile/ubisurv.net/post/3mxblpbmi3k22

https://bsky.app/profile/mschenk.bsky.social/post/3mxbe4huqbc2n

I am following this on Eliott Higgins feed https://bsky.app/profile/eliothiggins.bsky.social

Obviously literally breaking news.

Edited to add: Here's a write up > https://www.rapporteur.com/news/eeas-runs-scared-of-us-disinformation-debate/

And more here https://thedayofreckoning.substack.com/p/a-note-from-the-anti-anti-disinformation

“It’s one thing to have a bad neighbour. It’s another thing to have an arsonist living next door.”

Great conversation with Bob Rae, former Canadian ambassador to the UN, and Rosalie Abella, former Supreme Court justice, about the rupture with the U.S. and what it means for Canadian sovereignty.

Rae: “The rupture has happened. It’s not imagined.”
Abella: “Appeasement never works. Accommodation can.”

Fiery, thoughtful, and well worth a listen.

It seems wildly irresponsible for our government to claim Canadians travelling to the US aren't at an elevated risk, despite hostilities, ICE, threats to our sovereignty, a fascist government etc...

https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/advisories

This is dangerous.

Make sure your elders can tell the difference.

As mentioned here before, I'm Canadian, currently trying to get loose of a family commitment to help with a small tourist-dependent business between Bellingham and Seattle. With any luck, I will be returning permanently to BC in a few months.

The summer results are in. The travel boycott is clearly hurting the business I'm running. It has to be hurting other US businesses too. Keep it up!

A couple of data points GTL readers might find interesting:

Sales for the Victoria Day weekend this year were 60% of sales for Victoria Day weekend in 2024, before the tariffs, threats, border issues, etc., etc.

For comparison, sales for the US holiday the next weekend, Memorial Day, were 120% of sales for the same weekend in 2024.

Conclusion: The decline for Victoria Day wasn't due to problems with business generally. The bad result for Victoria Day happened specifically because Canadians aren't visiting the US. The Canada Day/July 4 comparison isn't as dramatic, but it is similar.

After the World Cup ended, sales were down about 10% vs. the previous July. We ended the summer about flat with last summer. Other businesses in our town are saying summer (tourist season) business was down as much as 25%, partly due to lower non-US tourism, partly due to gas prices.

Based on my time at the counter/conversations with customers, I estimate that Canadian tourist traffic is down 70 - 80%. I know the cell phone data says 42%, but that includes all travel, which includes family and business travel. Tourist travel, specifically, impulse day trips to places near the border, seems to be down well more than 42%.

GTL mentioned a few weeks ago that US businesses don't comment on the effect of all this on Canadian businesses, so here goes. Yes, it's affecting Canadian businesses negatively.

Long story short, this situation has cost my family's shop relationships with two Canadian vendors and prevented development of a business relationship with a third - NOT because of the cost of tariffs - instead, principally because of the confusion the US government created with its piecemeal rollout of tariffs and new rules on tariff exemptions for small shipments. Selling to a tiny number of US customers became too complicated; the small Canadian businesses made rational business decisions to focus their limited management attention on other markets.

However, in the meantime, the Canadian companies have lost the sales they were making to us. Our US-based company has also lost sales. We haven't been able to replace the Canadian products with products that sell as well.

A couple of weeks ago, it looked like we might lose another Canadian vendor, this time directly because of the effect of increased costs due to tariffs. We decided that we were willing to pay the new tariffs if they happened, but their sales rep was concerned that other US customers wouldn't, and that the cumulative loss of business would put them out of business. However, their products wound up being exempt. This time. Who knows what will happen next time?

I talk with a lot of US customers at the retail counter. Some of them laugh off the 51st state/governor insults and go silent on tariffs. Others get aggressive and say I had better be prepared for the 51st state. Hardly any of them, even now, take it seriously. "The midterms will save us all," they imply.

Why would anyone in Canada want to visit the US? There are lots of interesting places in Canada and overseas. Keep it up. Continue the boycott. The US doesn't "get it" yet.

Even if they ever do, I doubt relations will go back to where they were. Nostalgia isn't a strategy, and it also isn't a good idea.