Haines’ unusual letter to the Yukon meant as a reminder of friendship
The Haines Assembly last week voted to send a friendly letter to its Canadian neighbors. That’s following U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs and his musings that Canada could become the 51st state.
Haines Junction, Yukon is about 150 miles from Haines, Alaska. And Whitehorse is just 100 miles further. Although not in the same country, they’re Haines’ closest neighbors by road.
That’s one reason for sending them a conciliatory letter, according to Haines Mayor Tom Morphet.
“Reassuring them that we appreciate and reaffirm our long relationship of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance,” Morphet said. “Everyone probably remembers when we had our slide event here in 2020. Whitehorse, I believe, sent us $15,000. The folks from Canada look after us, and we try to look after them.”
Another reason to reach out is economics.
Alaska’s Haines, dubbed the Adventure Capital of Alaska, relies on Canadian tourists as part of its independent traveler model.
Before approving the letter, assembly members shared stories of concern.
Assemblymember Kevin Forster said he spent the weekend with friends from Whitehorse for his wife’s birthday.
“And they said that even they themselves had received pressure to not come to Haines right now, and that amongst their friends, they have discussions about not buying American booze and not visiting” Forster said. “And so at least anecdotally, I think that this potentially is an issue.”
Assembly member Richard Clement, who is on the board of the Kluane Chilkat International Bike Relay, said he is seeing negative effects from new federal policies.
“Half our board is Canadians, and half Americans,” he said. “And we had a meeting last night, and there was some animosity. You know, as mentioned, Canadians may be reluctant to come here with all this talk that’s going on.”
Haines Tourism Director Reba Hylton told KHNS that she too is observing some pushback from northern neighbors.
“We have received one email at our Visit Hanes email address from a Canadian that lives in the Yukon, that specifically said they wouldn’t be visiting until the national situation kind of calms down a little bit,” she said. “That’s the consensus on the dozen or so comments that I have deleted off of our social media posts on Instagram and on Facebook.”
She said she’s occasionally seeing a similar sentiment on RV and cruise travel pages. While it’s not keeping her up at night, she says she’ll be paying attention.
Vanessa Aegirsdottir is also keeping a close watch. She’s a Canadian citizen who owns a business in Whitehorse, with a second location across the border in Skagway. She said when the news broke about a 25% tariff on Canadian goods, she nearly had a heart attack.
“I spent my entire day in front of my computer researching alternate suppliers … Meals were brought to me at the table. I barely even left to go to the bathroom,” she said. “I was, you know, researching manufacturers in India and China, desperately trying to find alternatives so that I could switch gears, like tomorrow, if I needed to.”
While Aegirsdottir is also seeing posts on Facebook encouraging Canadians to boycott American brands, she’s not sure the frustration will carry over into a significant decline of Yukon visits to Skagway and Haines.
“The general feeling is that we don’t hold individuals in Alaska responsible for all of the craziness,” she said. “And even predating this drama, I think a lot of us don’t actually characterize our friends and neighbors in Alaska as Americans. We actually see you guys in a more intimate, neighborly, familial kind of context. We see you as Alaskans.”
Trump’s tariffs are on a 30-day pause while the two countries negotiate around his concerns about border security and drug trafficking.
Alaska’s tourist season is just two months away.