Canada shuts down southern border to fleeing Americans
“They’re eating the pancakes, they’re eating the syrup, they’re eating the breakfast … of the people who live here, eh?”
Jeffrey Denny
OTTAWA — PM Justin Trudeau’s recent decision to reverse Canada’s longstanding pro-immigration policy has sent shock waves south of the border.
Millions of Americans were planning to seek asylum in Canada amid growing fear that former President Donald Trump would regain the White House and carry out his pledge to begin dictating on his first day in office.
Americans fleeing Trump’s expected reign of oppression were shocked and terrified as Trudeau backpedaled on what they long regarded as the exemplary pro-immigration policies set forth by his father, the late former PM Pierre Trudeau, in the late 1970s.
Trudeau père laid out the welcome mat to revive the nation amid its shrinking population and economy. The policy promised a “Canadian Mosaic” that celebrated national and ethnic differences to contrast with the American “melting pot” that demanded assimilation.
But recent polls showed increasing concern among Canadians that immigrants were overwhelming their healthcare system, housing supply, infrastructure and economy.
Asked whether the flood tide of Americans would make things worse, nearly 200% of Canadians said, “Yeah, no, for sure.”
Trudeau officials deny claims that his immigration reversal was targeted at American refugees.
Yet observers say he’s clearly reacting to “the large, well-organized caravan” of U.S. migrant “hoards” seeking to “invade” Canada, as he put it.
Border officials say the majority are coming from nearby Vermont, upstate New York college towns and downstate Brooklyn and Manhattan, and most of Massachusetts, as well as Ann Arbor, Michigan, Madison, Wisconsin and other northern Democratic camps.
Many arrive on carbon-fibre road bikes, Canada Goose hiking boots, hybrid Subarus and even Range Rover SUVs, all hungry from eating climate-friendly. Some traveled thousands of miles by dangerous and grueling United Airlines from Hollywood, California, Washington, DC, and Austin, Texas.
The Americans are entitled to asylum “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion,” as the U.N. defines refugees.
“They’re concerned about Trump’s retribution tour to prosecute or punish his perceived enemies from within,” Amnesty International said.
Many asylum-seekers are progressives who “Canada doesn’t need more of,” as one Trudeau immigration official said.
But they also include moderate Democrats and Republicans, military leaders, and former Trump aides and appointees who put country over strict loyalty to him. Still others voted for Vice President Kamala Harris to save America and also women from government dictating reproduction.
Trudeau supporters warn against taking his anti-American immigration rhetoric seriously.
They note he could never fulfill his promise of mass deportations of Americans or separate border families and put their children into “Kid Crates.” He’s just trying to win votes as he faces Conservative Party leader and nationalist populist firebrand, Pierre Poilievre.
Yet as the 2025 Canadian federal election approaches a year from now, Trudeau has been ramping up his anti-American immigrant rhetoric.
“They’re not sending their best, people like you,” Trudeau told a recent Liberal Party caucus of childless cat ladies. “They’re bringing capitalism, they’re bringing corporate healthcare, they’re stealing the Stanley Cup, and some, I assume, are good people, eh?”
At recent rallies, Trudeau has begun calling the U.S. a “hoser country” and accusing the Americans of “poisoning our syrup” by smuggling in Mrs. Butterworth. Trudeau rallygoers have taken to quietly suggesting, “Sorry, please build the wall if it’s not too much trouble.”
Research by Canadian immigration policy experts shows that the nation’s historic passive-aggressive condescension against Americans borne of insecurity sparked into heated xenophobic resentment in 2014 when the U.S. fast-food chain Burger King seized Tim Hortons and ruined the donut shops.
“The Americans destroyed Timmies like they destroy everything they touch,” one Trudeau rallygoer said. “Like the environment, democracy and real Canadian bacon.”
Jeffrey Denny is a Washington writer.
