What A Time For PlanetSKI To Be In Canada
The Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has just made what is being judged a landmark and historical speech in Davos, Switzerland, as US President Trump threatens the existing world order with his incoherent ramblings and ‘policy statements’.
Mark Carney’s words at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland seem to have galvanised opposition to Trump and given a strategy for the so-called ‘medium powers’ to rally and unify around.
Trump’s limited grasp of facts was seemingly exemplified when he said to the World Economic Forum, “Without us, right now you’d all be speaking German.”
German is the most widely spoken of the four official languages in Switzerland.
It was a one hour and 12 minute meandering address from Trump.
PlanetSKI has found that Canadians are shunning the USA – it’s neighbour and biggest trading partner.
They have pretty much boycotted skiing there with numbers significantly down.
The US has long been the number one travel destination for Canadians — not a surprise given the proximity of two countries.
While it remains a top destination, the number of Canadians making trips south has dropped by more than 25%.
That decline has been noticed by the American tourism industry, which forecast a loss of $5.7bn (£4.3bn) in tourism spending.
For years Canadians have been the biggest source of international visitors to the US, making up 28% of foreign tourist in 2024.
Roughly four million fewer Canadians have visited the US in the past 12 months and skier visitors have plummeted too.
The snow in Canada has generally been plentiful this season, while sparce in the USA, but if it has been the other way around many Canadians would still have chosen to stay at home.
Visiting the USA is seen as unpatriotic and therefore un-Canadian.
Trump has imposed tariffs on several key Canadian sectors and has warned of more to come.
He has also referred to Canada as ‘the 51st state’ — a comment that has been met with a mix of anxiety and a strong display of patriotism.
Canadians are some of the most laid-back people in the world – but not now when it comes to the view of the USA.
Or more particularly Donald J. Trump.
While the relationship between the two countries has had its ups and downs, many Canadians shop, travel and work in the USA, plus have family ties to the country.
But the past 12 months has seen a change in Canadians’ overall attitudes towards the US, if not towards Americans themselves.
The BBC has reported that Polling conducted by the Pew Research Center last spring indicated that 64% of Canadians held a negative view of the US in 2025 — the highest ever recorded in more than two decades of polling by Pew.
The survey suggested an even larger percentage of Canadians, around 77%, lack confidence in Trump as a president.
Nine-in-10 respondents described him as “arrogant”, and three-quarters said they believe he is “dangerous”.
A separate Angus Reid poll from October suggests that nearly half of Canadians (46%) want their government to approach the US as an “enemy or potential threat”.
This is higher than for India (24%) or China (34%).
Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has sought to improve the relationship with both of those countries after years of tensions related, among other issues, to allegations of foreign interference.
A more recent Leger poll conducted earlier this month indicates that one in three Canadians believe the US could take “direct action” to control Canada in the future.
The poll was in response to the US seizure this month of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and Trump’s renewed comments on taking control of Greenland.
Canadians are choosing local products in the face of US tariffs.
It has been a great time for PlanetSKI to visit Canada for a two-month extended trip this winter.
For the snow, and the politics.
We live in interesting times.
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Sunshine Village, Banff, Canada. Image c/o Ross Young.
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