With high gas prices and a trade war, get ready for a long stretch of low cross-border travel

Polling by Leger shows that the political climate and tensions with Washington were why 61 per cent of Canadians were less likely to travel to the U.S. last year. By early March 2026, just one week into the Iran conflict, that number had risen to 67 per cent.

“The overwhelming drive right now … is that pushback toward the Trump administration,” said Laurie Trautman, director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University in Bellingham, who conducts regular polling at the border.