Alberta-U.S. travel down but not as sharply as the rest of Canada. Is
it politics? Pragmatism? Peer pressure?
AnalysisRobson Fletcher
| CBC News | Posted: May 26, 2025 8:00 AM | Last Updated: May
26
'A lot of interesting dynamics are at play here,' says U of A
professor who is American
Image | WestJet-Route-Suspensions 20220916
Caption: A passenger walks past Air Canada and WestJet planes
at the Calgary International Airport in this file photo from
August 2022. So far in 2025, travel to and from the U.S. is
down, but not as much as at other airports in Canada. (Jeff
McIntosh/The Canadian Press)
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It's been well documented by now that Canadians have been
travelling to the United States less since U.S. President
Donald Trump took office in January, but a further breakdown of
the data reveals Alberta has seen smaller declines than the
rest of the country.
Air travel through Alberta's major airports, in particular, has
been less affected than at airports in the rest of Canada.
And while Alberta-U.S. travel by land is down quite a bit, the
declines are still less pronounced than what's been seen at
border crossings in other provinces.
These trends come as no surprise to David Rast.
He's a psychology professor at the University of Alberta who
studies leadership, social influences and group behaviour. He's
also an American who has been living outside of the United
States for the past 13 years.
"Every time I go back to the states, I feel less and less like
I'm an American and less and less like I belong there," he
said.
Rast has a trip planned to the U.S. this month and understands
the mixed feelings many Canadian residents now have about
travelling to a country widely seen, until recently, as a
friend and ally.
"I am also apprehensive about going to the U.S. and have
thought about cancelling my trip, but it's been planned for
quite a while, so we're just kind of continuing with it," he
said.
"But we have had some people who were going with us who have
backed out."
'A lot of interesting dynamics' at play
That dichotomy has played out in millions of Canadians' travel
decisions this year and, statistically speaking, those in
Alberta appear to have leaned more toward going than not going
when compared with the rest of the country.
We don't know exactly why, but Rast believes political
viewpoints likely play a big role — as they do in so many
aspects of our beliefs and decision-making.
Other Albertans who have made their own travel decisions this
year figured other factors are at play, as well.
* Canadian-resident return trips from the U.S. drop again for
April, StatsCan data shows
* 'I don't blame you': U.S. tourism hot spots mourn Canadian
travel cancellations
Alberta's oilpatch does have close ties to Texas, for instance,
and business trips might be less likely to be cancelled than
personal vacations. The geography of Alberta also means
spur-of-the-moment trips to the United States are harder than
they are in other parts of the country, and those trips are
easier to cancel than long-planned vacations.
Safety concerns also play a role, and those worries can be
especially pronounced for those who don't follow binary gender
norms.
Then there's also the influence of old-fashioned peer pressure.
"A lot of interesting dynamics are at play here," Rast said.
"And the answer is far from straightforward at all, once we
start getting into all the different politics, groups and
subgroups, and then the international relations going on, as
well."
Booked in advance, but not booking again
Greg Rairdan was among the Albertans who decided to go.
But, he said, it came with some hesitation.
The 52-year-old Edmonton resident actually made two recent
trips to the U.S. this calendar year, both booked in the fall
of 2024. Or, as he puts it, "before the inauguration, before
the 51st-state stuff."
The first trip was to Las Vegas with a group of guy friends for
"some golf and hanging out." The second was a family trip to
watch the Canadian men's soccer team play in the CONCACAF
Nations League Finals in Inglewood, Calif.
He said it crossed his mind to cancel the trips when Trump's
tariff talk and annexation rhetoric heated up, but after
thinking it through and discussing it with his fellow
travellers, they decided to continue on with their plans.
"It just didn't make any sense for us to cancel a
non-refundable trip, burn all that money," he said.
Embed | Change in Canadian residents returning from the USA by
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That said, he will think twice about booking future trips.
"I think with United States trying to punish us economically, I
don't think it makes sense for us to spend our hard-earned
tourism dollars in the United States at this moment," Rairdan
said.
"And it seems like there are a lot of like-minded Canadians."
That sense of national solidarity, he said, is palpable. And
there's a degree of social pressure that comes along with it.
"I think especially when the news cycle hit its peak, not going
to the United States was being seen as a proxy for the Canadian
patriotism," he said.
"But, you know, I haven't really heard of anyone actually being
really judgmental, like, 'That person is a bad person because
they're going to the United States.'"
Personal boycott, professional consequences
Jennifer Annesley is among the Albertans who decided not to go.
And, as a professional visual artist, it was a difficult
decision.
One of her paintings was accepted into the 158th International
Exhibition of the American Watercolor Society, an honour that
comes complete with an invitation to the Salmagundi Club in New
York City, where the event is held.
It's not the first time she's had a painting accepted into the
annual exhibition, but it's the first time she's turned down
the invitation — and the professional opportunities that come
with attendance.
* A wave of artists are reconsidering tours over U.S. border
detention fears
* Montreal artist cancels U.S. tour over visa policies
targeting his gender identity
She thought long and hard about her decision and ultimately
chose to make "a personal boycott" due to "the tensions between
the U.S. and Canada."
"I wanted to make my own statement by not going and not
travelling and not spending my time there," Annesley said.
As time went on, however, she started to see other reasons for
not crossing the border, including warnings about U.S. Border
Patrol's ability and willingness to search people's personal
electronic devices, and stories about international travellers
being aggressively detained.
"It sort of started out as protest and then ended up with being
a bit fearful to go," she said.
'I certainly felt anxious'
Those worries crossed Gavin Needham's mind, as well.
The 29-year-old Edmontonian recently travelled to New York City
on his way to board a cruise ship that would take him across
the Atlantic Ocean.
"On a personal level, I certainly felt anxious about the
process, [and] if there would be any extra scrutiny at the
[U.S.] border," he said from the ship, via a direct-message
conversation, as he continued his vacation in Europe.
However, he said the experience flying to New York via Toronto,
where he did pre-clearance via the NEXUS program, all went as
smoothly as it had in the past.
He's planning one more trip to New York in the summer and
another trip to Florida in the late fall.
"They were all booked ahead of time with non-refundable
deposits so cancelling would mean losing out on some money," he
said.
Needham wondered if Alberta's air-travel numbers, in
particular, are affected by people in similar situations, with
non-refundable U.S. trips booked months ahead of time. That
might explain why February and March saw such small declines in
air travel, while April's decline was significantly larger.
Alberta-U.S. travel by land, meanwhile, has seen larger
declines than by air. (But still not as large as in the rest of
the country.)
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Needham notes Alberta's geography makes travel options to the
U.S. "a lot more limited" than for British Columbians who can
make relatively easy trips down to Washington state, or
Ontarians and Quebecers who are close to major destinations in
the northeast U.S.
"So I think it might be easier for people to cancel 'easier'
trips, but there's a lot more involved in U.S. travel from
Alberta," he said.
"I have made the decision, however, to not book any new trips
going forward for 2026 and later, considering the situation."
Gender and safety
Ellen Forget lives in Calgary and is working on a PhD at the
University of Toronto that focuses on braille and accessible
book production.
In the past, Forget has presented research at conferences
organized by the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading
and Publishing. But this year's conference is in Rochester,
N.Y., and they decided not to go, in large part due to American
laws and attitudes toward gender.
"I can't justify spending money and supporting American tourism
or just spending money in the U.S. in general, and I can't
justify the risk," they said.
For genderqueer people, Forget noted, concerns around safety
extend beyond the border crossing.
* P.E.I. trans and non-binary community wary of going to U.S.
while Trump is president
* UNB law prof warns academics to avoid U.S. border where due
process 'is on life support'
"I can appear femme to a lot of people, but I also have really
short hair, and from behind could very easily be mistaken for
male. And the American policies of who can use which bathroom
and who can be in which space is very alarming to someone like
me, who is non-binary and gender fluid, and doesn't really
subscribe to gender norms," they said.
"And the thought of possibly just needing to use the bathroom
and being harassed for that or worse, being assaulted, because
that has happened in many cases, means just the personal safety
risk is not worth it for me."
They said missing the conference will mean missing out on
academic and professional opportunities, but it was the correct
decision, for them.
Forget has "no judgment" for people who make different
decisions but isn't surprised Alberta-U.S. travel has seen
smaller declines than the rest of Canada.
"Alberta is largely conservative, which aligns with the current
political state in the U.S.," they said. "So it is likely that
fewer Albertans are concerned about the political state of the
U.S. and still feel comfortable travelling there."
How politics shape beliefs
Rast, the American psychology professor now living in Canada,
said politics and peer pressure play a big role when it comes
to these kinds of decisions.
"We're looking to other people around us to see how they're
behaving, especially people that we might think of as being
representative of our own group," he said.
So when people with high levels of Canadian pride see other
Canadians choosing not to travel to the U.S. based on that
sense of pride, he said they're more likely to go along with
the group and choose not to travel as well.
Albertans, he noted, expressed some of the lowest levels of
Canadian pride in recent polling, so it's not surprising
Alberta-U.S. travel has seen smaller declines than in other
parts of the country.
* Alberta's most conservative and progressive ridings, ranked
* Albertans' opinions differ most sharply along religious,
educational lines
Even concerns surrounding the safety of U.S. travel, he said,
can be affected by political beliefs.
"People view the world right away through their left and right
partisan beliefs," he said.
"And that's going to shape whether they view the U.S. as
threatening at the moment."
The same psychological effect might prompt Albertans who feel
more provincial pride than national pride to actively travel to
the U.S., due to the dynamics within their own social groups.
"And so for them, instead of wanting to support Canada, they're
possibly wanting to support the U.S., or show that they're
actually different from the rest of Canada," Rast said.
"This sense of Alberta identity coming forward instead of
Canadian identity is what we're starting to see here now — or
continuing to see — post-election. And I think that's going to
continue for quite some time, especially with this new push for
the petition for the referendum for independence in Alberta."
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