U.S. senators urge Canada to “give us another chance” on trade & tourism

A group of bipartisan U.S. senators who visited Ottawa over the weekend expressed a strong desire to strengthen ties with Canada, despite recent attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.

As reported by Global News, the only Republican in the group appealed to Canadians to “give us another chance.”

During their visit Friday (May 23), the five senators held talks with Prime Minister Mark Carney, who emphasized the need for a renewed economic and security alliance with the U.S., while also acknowledging that the era of “deep integration” between the two nations has come to an end.

The American lawmakers emphasized that the enduring relationship between Canada and the U.S. should be preserved, stressing that cooperation in areas like trade, tourism, and defence remains essential.

“We have to do this stuff together,” Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota told Mercedes Stephenson in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block.

“We’ll be better at it if we’re friends than if we’re just tolerating one another…I’m just here (in Ottawa) to say thank you, and then to encourage Canadians to take another look and give us another chance.”

Shifting sentiment

Many Canadians have distanced themselves from the U.S. after Trump imposed broad tariffs on Canadian products and expressed interest in turning Canada into the "51st state."

This shift has resulted in fewer Canadians travelling to the United States – Statistics Canada, for one, has reported four straight months of year-over-year declines of return trips to Canada from the U.S.

READ MORE: U.S. inbound travel continues to decline amid shifting sentiment

At the same time, some states like California have initiated advertising campaigns aimed at attracting Canadian tourists once again.

However, the decline in U.S. tourism isn’t limited to just Canada. Last week, Tourism Economics released new data, projecting an overall 8.7 per cent decline in U.S. inbound tourism for 2025.

The downturn is particularly pronounced among travellers from Canada, but also Western Europe, the organization reports.

Canadian arrivals have plummeted by 20.2 per cent, with land border crossings in April dropping a staggering 35.2 per cent compared to the previous year. Air travel from Canada fell by 19.9 per cent over the same period.

Western European travel to the U.S. saw a more modest but still significant 5.8 per cent decline.

In total, international visitor spending is projected to decrease by $8.5 billion this year—a 4.7 per cent reduction from 2024 levels, the organization said.

Looking ahead, the situation shows little sign of immediate improvement.

As of April, forward air bookings to the U.S. for the May–July period are down 10.8 per cent compared to last year, pointing to continued caution among international travellers, according to Tourism Economics.

Don't miss a single travel story: subscribe to PAX today!  Click here to follow PAX on Facebook.