We Asked the Wrong Question: What Canadians Told Us About the Snowbird Slowdown
Editor's note (updated September 26, 2026):
On August 6, 2026, we originally published this piece under the headline "Where Did All the Canadians Go?" It reached more than 400,000 people and drew thousands of comments, most of them from Canadians telling us the question itself was the problem. They were right. We have rewritten the article rather than deleting it, because we'd rather correct our mistake in public than quietly disappear it. What follows is the revised version, shaped by what Canadians told us directly. Our full statement is on our Instagram and Facebook.
This summer we published an article asking where all the Canadians had gone. Thousands of Canadians answered, and the answer was not complicated. It was some version of: you know exactly where we went, and you know exactly why.
One reply summed up the whole thing in a sentence. "It's not you, it's him." Another, from someone who told us the post read as "we miss your money," and that “Palm Springs Loves Canada” banner signs and stickers will not fix what has been done. That comment has more than two hundred likes and we hear you fully. Thank you for telling us plainly where we got it wrong in our attempts to simply say: we miss you, we love you, and we're sorry. 💗
So we want to answer our own question honestly this time, and put our position where it should have been from the start. We do not support what this administration is doing to Canada. The talk of making it the 51st state, the taunting of a sitting prime minister, the tariffs, the way Canadians are now treated at our border – we think it is shameful, and we understand completely why people who spent thirty winters here have decided to spend this one somewhere else. If you are boycotting, you have our respect.
Why are Canadians not coming to Palm Springs? Canadians are staying away primarily because of how the United States government has treated Canada: annexation rhetoric, tariffs, and border enforcement that many travelers now consider a personal risk. A weak Canadian dollar and rising costs make it harder still. Most Canadians who spoke to us drew a clear line between the U.S. administration and ordinary Americans, and many said they will reconsider when the political situation changes.
What We Got Wrong Before
We framed a well-understood situation as a mystery. We’re very sorry about that. Canadians have been explaining their reasoning for a long time now, to anyone who would listen. Asking them to explain it again, in a cheerful caption, was careless.
We led with economics before. Our original piece opened with the exchange rate, airfare, and paperwork, and treated politics as one factor among several. Canadians corrected that repeatedly, and one line stuck with us: it isn't the tariffs, it's the insults. A Canadian commenter put the question back to us plainly – would Americans be offended if another head of state referred to the president as the "premier" of America's eleventh province?
We stayed neutral before, which we told ourselves was the inclusive choice. It wasn't. In a moment like this, neutrality is just an unfortunate way of siding with what's happening.
What the Numbers Actually Show
The data is real, and it belongs in this story. It just isn't the story.
Canadian passenger arrivals at Palm Springs International Airport fell roughly 27% in August 2025, 42% in September, and 30% in October, according to figures presented to the Palm Springs Airport Commission. Airlines trimmed winter service accordingly. For February 2026, the heart of the season, the airport projected about 25 fewer arriving Canadian flights.
Nationally, Statistics Canada reported that Canadian trips to the U.S. grew year over year for five straight months through August 2026, though air travel remained roughly 23% below 2024 levels. Then trade talks between Ottawa and Washington collapsed in late August, followed by new tariffs on both sides.
One thing we should have been clearer about the first time: those figures describe last season. It is late September, so this season hasn't started. As more than one Canadian pointed out, with the patience of someone explaining something obvious, they come in October.
What Canadians Actually Told Us
Here are some important things we learned from social comments made from our Canadian friends:
Most people separated the country from its government. Over and over we heard: we love Americans, we love Palm Springs, and we're staying away from what your president is doing. One Canadian wrote that they have never seen Canadians this hurt, angry, and resolved, and also that they miss their Palm Springs friends dearly. Both things were true in the same comment, constantly.
Another story was directly shared with us about a Canadian gay couple who were recently here to help a US friend in need, saying it’s socially unacceptable to visit the USA under its current leadership, and that they feel they cannot let anyone know they are here.
Safety and the border. Canadians described phone and social media searches at the border, fear of detention, and the registration requirement for stays of 30 days or more. Whatever the statistical likelihood of any individual encounter, the fear is real and it is shaping decisions. Several people said plainly that they no longer feel safe crossing, and one specifically cited anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in other parts of the country as part of why the U.S. doesn't feel welcoming anymore.
Cost is a genuine factor, not an excuse. A number of Canadians who are not boycotting said the math simply stopped working. The loonie has been hovering around 72 U.S. cents. A Canadian visitor described a downtown room that now runs past $600 CAD a night after exchange and fees. Another claimed they were priced out a drive down at roughly $12,000 CAD in fuel. Several mentioned golf pricing and one-month minimum rental rules. One made a concrete suggestion we'd pass along to every business in the valley: banners are cute (are they though?), but Vegas and New York offered Canadians actual exchange-rate deals.
A lot of Canadians are still coming. This is the part our original article failed to touch upon, and we're sorry for that. "See you in November." "Back in February." "My 45th trip." One local business owner said 90% of their Canadian customers were here last winter. Canadians who own homes here are the most likely to return, often because of friendships they aren't willing to abandon. One longtime owner wrote that if they didn't have those ties they'd probably travel elsewhere, but they do, so they're coming.
And some are not coming back at all. Several people said the damage is permanent regardless of who holds office. Others have already sold. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico more broadly, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Costa Rica, Thailand, and travel within Canada came up again and again. Someone coined a word for it that we suspect will stick: Snowmads.
About Palm Springs, Specifically
We are not going to tell you this city is a bubble untouched by any of it. Commenters correctly noted that Riverside County went for Trump (under the assumption that any of this was a fair election), that some parts of the valley fly a lot of flags, and some visitors have described other uncomfortable encounters in another desert city outside of Palm Springs. Claiming sanctuary status for an entire region would be exactly the kind of gloss that got us in the hot seat in the first place.
What we can say is narrower and true. Palm Springs is a majority-LGBTQ+ city with a long history of voting true blue and taking care of people the rest of the country wasn't taking care of. Everyone we know is furious about what's being done inside our borders and beyond them. The businesses that have been quiet this year are largely small, local, and queer-owned, and many of them are run by people who vote the same way we do.
Which brings us to the thing Canadians asked for most often, more than banners and more than apologies: VOTE. Many of you said you're watching November. For whatever it's worth from two guys in the desert, our vote is always blue, and you better believe we'll be voting.
Where We Land
If you're Canadian and you've decided to spend your winter somewhere else, we certainly understand, and we'd probably make the same call. If you're coming back this season, whether because you own a place or because you have other reasons to be here regardless of all the hurdles and difficulties, we'll be glad to see you again. And if you're an American reading this, the most useful thing you can do is vote in November, and to remain honest about what's happening in the meantime.
We'll keep writing about this city because we love it. We'll try to do it with our eyes open. 🇨🇦🏳️🌈💗
Canadians, if there's something we still got wrong here, tell us. We're reading.
