Maine governor comes face to face with Canadian travel fears

Maine's regulator was confronted on tues with the realism of how frightful some young Brunswickers are about visiting the United States while U.S. President Donald Trump is in the White House.

Janet Mills was in Fredericton for the second day of a tour through Atlantic Canada, hoping to reverse — or at least slow — a steep decline in the number of tourists crossing the border to visit Maine.

She and Premier Susan Holt delivered a joint ode to cross-border connections to a Fredericton Chamber of Commerce audience largely concerned about the impact of tariffs on their businesses.

But two questions from participants brought into sharp relief how immigration raids and the rolling back of trans rights is scaring some Canadians away from U.S. Visits.

"A lot of members of the queer community — a lot of Canadians feel unsafe, Canadians who are 2SLGBTQI+ absolutely feel unsafe going there," said Vivian Myers-Jones, a member of the Saint John Pride board.

"It's a terrifying thing going down there right now." 

Myers-Jones plans to travel to Bangor this weekend for Pride events there as part of a partnership between organizers in the two cities, but said many other members of the community are afraid to go.

Another member of the audience, business owner David Dennis, said his Venezuelan-born wife vetoed a planned trip to Maine this year despite his attempts to assure her that having Canadian citizenship would protect her at the border.

"Her fellow countrymen had been targeted for deportation and her comment was, 'I'm not going to the States this year,'" he told the two political leaders.

Travel fears intrude on N.B.-Maine co-operation efforts

Even before the question-and-answer session, Holt herself used the U.S. Political situation to encourage New Brunswickers to travel within the province this summer — as she has been since the Trump administration first announced tariffs on Canadian exports. 

"Lots of people don't feel safe in the U.S. Right now and for good reason, and until that changes I think the climate for visitors will be difficult," she said.

Mills said Maine has among the lowest crime rates in the U.S. And Canadians should feel secure hiking, skiing, swimming and shopping there. 

"You can do that safely," she said.

She acknowledged as governor she has no control over how the U.S. Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement operate in the state.

"But for the most part, they're busy in other places. They know that the relationships between Calais and St. Stephen, Madawaska and Edmundston, are sacred, and I don't think they want to damage those relationships either," she said.

After the 90-minute session wrapped up, Mills approached Dennis while he was speaking to reporters and hugged him. 

"Tell your wife we'll keep her safe," she said.

The governor said she could understand Canadian angst "when you hear one or two stories on a 4,000-mile border. It can be scary and people have a right to feel anxiety. But tens of thousands of people are crossing the border every day."

She called New Brunswick's multiple border crossings with Maine "the safest places in the world to cross an international border."

Holt acknowledged that Mills opposes Trump's policies, even challenging them in court.

But she said the governor's assurances that federal immigration crackdowns are happening far from Maine won't persuade everyone.

"Not knowing where they're going to be next makes it a really uncertain environment for anyone who feels they might be targeted [by] ICE," Holt said.

Visits by New Brunswickers to Maine have been down by about one-third this year compared to last year.

Holt is spending this week travelling around New Brunswick with Tourism Minister Isabelle Thériault to promote various destinations within the province.

Provincial Affairs reporter

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