Puck Around, Find Out: Florida And Canada Are On A Trade War Collision Course

Canada may not want to become America’s 51st state. But its residents have long found the 27th state irresistible.

Enticed by warm winters, beaches, theme parks and a friendly business climate, Florida’s been a major draw for Canadian tourists, snowbirds and entrepreneurs. Florida, too, benefits from $6 billion in imports from Canada — everything from aircraft and aerospace parts to construction materials and vegetables. But looming tariffs — and growing economic anxieties — have Canadians rethinking the orange juice they buy and their car and air travel to the Sunshine State.

Leaders from both Canada and Florida have engaged in verbal skirmishes as trade tensions have escalated. And some Canadians are even disavowing Wayne Gretzky, the country’s most beloved hockey export, now better known as a Palm Beach resident and MAGA supporter who joined celebrations at Mar-a-Lago when Donald Trump won back the White House.

Senior officials from all levels of Canadian government devoted weeks of back-and-forth travel to Washington in an effort to discourage the White House from slapping 25 percent tariffs on Canada. With Trump increasingly fixated on the idea of making Canada the 51st state, he’s imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum with plans for other sectors like dairy, timber and copper.

“There’s going to be increases in prices across a whole swath of goods,” predicted Sylvia Cesaratto, the consul general of Canada in Miami.

“This uncertainty is not good for business decisions,” she added of the whiplash on tariff announcements. “The markets don’t like this ping-pong match, and it’s delaying business decisions on both sides of the border: Where can investments be made? Can we put in that contract? Will the price change? What is going to be the actual impact of tariffs on the company’s bottom line?”

But between Canada and Florida, a war of words has raged at the upper echelons of government leadership.

When former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced retaliatory tariffs on 1,256 items, from household appliances to motorcycles and coffee, he encouraged Canadians to “do your part” by “changing your summer vacation plans” or picking domestic products at the grocery store, “foregoing Florida orange juice altogether.”

New polling shows a surge in Canadian pride in defiance of Trump’s threats. “There’s a new movement in Canada, and that’s our ‘Canada first’ movement,” Flavio Volpe of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association recently told CNN.

“Canadians are hurt, are angry,” Trudeau explained of the mood in Canada. “We’re going to choose to not go on vacation in Florida or Old Orchard Beach or wherever. We’re going to choose to try to buy Canadian products and forgo bourbon and other classic American products. Yeah, we’re probably going to keep booing the American anthem.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis couldn’t resist a Canadian counterpunch in his State of the State address on March 5, boasting about the fact that 3.3 million Canadian tourists had enjoyed the Sunshine State in 2024.

“That’s not much of a boycott in my book,” said DeSantis, referring to threats individual travelers had made in news reports about skipping out on Florida visits. “Maybe they wanted to get a glimpse of what a Stanley Cup winning hockey team actually looks like.” (The hockey barb was particularly harsh, considering the Florida Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers in last year’s Stanley Cup Final.)

But there are early indications Canadians are indeed changing their travel plans. Return car trips from Canada to the U.S. dropped 23 percent last month. And airlines report Canadians are canceling trips to Florida. It does not help that the Canadian dollar is worth about 70 cents compared to the U.S. dollar.

Aside from Canada, the NAACP and LGBTQ rights organizations have urged travelers to avoid Florida in recent years in response to the governor’s policies on race and gender identity. The state, however, still saw record tourism. The same was true during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when federal health officials warned the state’s quick reopening was reckless.

State economic reports show that although Canadians are the most frequent international visitors to Florida, and contribute to property tax revenue by buying more real estate in Florida than people from other countries, they also spend less than what domestic travelers spend. According to a 2021 state economic estimate, Canadian visitors spent an average of roughly $60 a day, while overseas visitors spent $101 and domestic travelers spent $165.

Florida’s lifeblood tourism industry generates roughly 14 percent of the state’s sales tax, which significantly supports annual spending. And the state’s tourism agency, VISIT FLORIDA, counts on international travelers to spend more by vacationing for weeks versus the days usually spent by domestic travelers. The agency’s international budget has historically focused more marketing dollars on areas such as the Middle East, the U.K. and France because travelers from those countries spend more and stay longer, and they visit multiple destinations across the state.

The economic benefits between Canada and Florida go far beyond tourism. More than 600 Canadian companies operate businesses here, including in the financial, aerospace and manufacturing sectors. Canadians also get 40 percent of their seafood from Florida, and import loads of produce such as citrus, watermelon, strawberries and tomatoes.

“These are big positions in terms of what Florida produces and exports that Canada buys, and they won’t be so easily diverted to other markets given the time sensitive nature of the product,” Cesaratto, the consul general of Canada, said.

Oil, auto parts and forestry products are among the goods Canada exports to Florida.

Canadian leaders worked to make the case with their U.S. counterparts that tariffs on Canada would also make things more expensive for Americans. Mark Carney, Canada’s new prime minister, has said his government intends to stick with retaliatory tariffs until “the Americans show us respect.”

This isn’t the first time that Florida has clashed with Canada. Health regulators in Ottawa have been worried about creating drug shortages for years under a plan by DeSantis to import cheaper prescription drugs.

Florida was the first state to apply with the Food and Drug Administration to import drugs shortly after Trump called for the final authorization of the program, and federal regulators spent years reviewing the state’s application until it was finally approved just more than a year ago.

Much of the delay was blamed on a federal lawsuit filed by the pharmaceutical industry, which was rejected by a Washington federal judge in 2023.

Florida’s importation program has still yet to bring in any cheaper drugs that were estimated to save Florida taxpayers more than $180 million in the first year. In fact, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration has given the top contractor for the program more than $60 million in tax dollars over the past four years, even though no drugs have come into the state. The contractor was negotiating with Canadian drug manufacturers as of Thursday, although there is no date set for the program to start.

“Florida’s vendor has been working to negotiate with Canadian manufacturers and distribution partners to purchase and import eligible prescription drugs into the U.S.,” AHCA spokesperson Alecia Collins wrote in an email.

DeSantis also blamed the delays on the Biden administration, but he hoped Trump’s return to the White House would speed up the final steps, despite continued opposition from Canada.

“They’ve been opposed to this from the beginning because it’s a golden goose for them,” DeSantis said shortly before he met with federal health regulators in Washington last month. “They get to have these discounted pharmaceuticals, and they’re basically being subsidized by American consumers.”

Canadians are clearly on the governor’s mind. At an event in Manatee County on Friday, DeSantis, responding to a question about the Tampa Bay Rays’ baseball stadium, repeated his hockey jab from the State of the State address — even calling out Trudeau by name on the day his successor took office in Ottawa.

Later in his remarks, DeSantis added a note on how often he’s seeing America’s northern neighbors in his state. “I’m running into Canadians left and right,” he said. “It’s anecdotal, but they’re here, they are here. They’re vacationing. There has not been a boycott of Florida.”

Kimberly Leonard reported from Miami, Arek Sarkissian reported from Tallahassee, Florida, and Sue Allan reported from Ottawa.