This Small Alaska Town Is Fighting to Preserve Canadian Relations
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Bound together
Few states feel a rift with Canada more keenly than Alaska, which shares its sole land border with its neighbor. The capital of Juneau, like much of southeastern Alaska, is almost completely encircled by Canada. Alaska exports some $600 million a year in goods to the country.
The regions are so enmeshed that the Alaska House recently passed a bipartisan resolution opposing trade restrictions and explicitly affirming Canada’s sovereignty. “It is one divorce you can’t have,” explained Republican Majority Leader Chuck Kopp, the measure’s co-sponsor.
Up here in the North, many Alaskans feel more kinship with Canada than the “Outside,” local lingo for the Lower 48 U.S. states. Picturesque Alaskan hamlets like Haines and Skagway serve as gateways for tourists visiting the Yukon. Residents cross for cheaper goods in Whitehorse, while Canadians come south for coastal amenities. Communities unite for softball tournaments.
But Canadian visitors to Haines and Skagway have dropped —a deliberate snub.
Whitehorse resident Karen McColl, a wildlife viewing specialist, went so far as to send an email to Skagway’s mayor with the subject line, “I’m breaking up with Alaska.”
“I don’t want to punish individuals and small businesses, but right now, it’s more important for Canadians to make our voices heard,” she wrote. “Why would I want to visit a country that’s acting so aggressively towards my own?”
A popular June bike relay in Haines—typically sold out within days—now has so few Canadian bookings the town is advertising in Whitehorse. “I’ve been angry because we shouldn’t be in this place,” said Rebecca Hylton, Haines’s tourism director.
Sarah Bishop said she won’t rebuild a restaurant that burned down in Haines in December. “It was already difficult and this makes it more difficult,” Bishop said, a cool wind whipping her hair outside the tiny Haines airport. Inside the lobby, a video board gushed, against a pink backdrop: “Haines Loves Canada.”
In Skagway, a stunning town of 1,100 nestled beneath a glacier, the recent binational Buckwheat Ski Classic saw few Canadians sticking around afterward to party or shop. “My biggest fear is losing relationships,” said Mike Healy, owner of Skagway Brewing Co. Canadians typically comprise a fifth of his sales this time of year. In March, these numbers fell 75%.
Hana Schindler, who lives on a hillside above Skagway with her husband, Bruce, said she tried to apologize to a close friend in Whitehorse on behalf of the U.S. “She said, ‘We understand that but we’re not going to Skagway,’ ” Schindler recalled.
Bruce Schindler—who collects mammoth tusks to carve—fears his main business of buying gold in the Yukon will be destroyed by high tariffs.
A small-town diplomat’s journey
Hanson, a builder and Skagway assemblyman, crosses the border regularly for supplies in Whitehorse. As he pulled up to the Canadian border entry on a recent afternoon, there appeared to be a palpable chill as a customs agent admonished him for approaching without permission. “If I need to take my firearm out, you’re not in the best position,” the agent warned.
Hanson shrugged it off. But he said he hadn’t encountered that kind of aggression before.
As he continued into a wilderness of snow-capped mountains and boreal forest, Hanson talked about one of the Yukon’s more famous residents. Trump’s grandfather, a German immigrant named Friedrich Trump, joined a stampede of prospectors in the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush, operating a restaurant and brothel in the Yukon.
“The Trump empire started right here,” Hanson said.
In Whitehorse, after picking up dog medicine for a friend, Hanson pulled into a slushy parking spot, for his meeting with Yukon officials about the binational port project.
Inside, Hanson met with the premier and Justin Ferbey, a Yukon deputy minister who quickly thanked him for testifying in Juneau in support of the House’s pro-Canada resolution.
Hanson looked at the minister and asked if it was true, as he had heard, that the Yukon Territory was considering a punitive toll for Americans on the Klondike Highway.
Ferbey smiled and said no. “We’re still bullish and very welcoming,” he assured Hanson. More good news followed: Funding for Skagway’s port upgrade—to handle shipments of ore from mines in Canada—wouldn’t have to go through Ottawa and potentially get tangled in federal politics. The money would instead go through Yukon’s legislature under a proposed agreement between Skagway and the territory.
“What we’re looking at right now is an agreement between Skagway and the territorial government,” Ferbey said.
The meeting ended with laughter. Hanson went to complete his errands, which included stopping at KFC for two buckets of chicken (cheaper in Canada) and at a hardware store. Canadian customer Maurice Ouimet was walking out with new wooden dowels for an art project.
“We don’t want these problems for either side,” he said. “We’re having a little spat.”
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The question becomes south of the 49th, where oh where are the adults ... the sane ones?
since you can't get from the lower 48 to alaska without passing thru canada, and vice versa, the solution is simple. canada should charge $100 per tire to enter, and leave, canada. $1000 per tire if there's a trump or maga bumper sticker on the vehicle ...
There's always the Ferry from Bellingham WA to Ketchikan AK.
I know how keen some maga movers and shakers are on riding ferries, it's in the news a lot ...
The faeries are not happy about it.
I thought Alaska was a red State.
They voted for Trump. Guess they didn't think that through very well. He promised to antagonize Canada, and has delivered. Alaska has more to lose by that antagonism than pretty much any other state in the US.
Could be the cold weather froze their brains. Didn't Connie Francis compose and sing a song called "Who's Sorry Now"?
It is.
I had friends who were good friends with her*. IIRC, they said she lost a Republican primary for Senator. So she decided to run anyway-- as a "write in" candidate-- against both the Democratic and Republican nominees. And-- she won!
Apparently one of the things that helped her win was the Inuit ("Eskimo") vote.
IIRC, since then shes been a Republican, but very moderate, not a big fan of Trump. (During his impeachment proceedings she voted to remove him from office).
*Its possible I may even had met her & her husband at a party at their NY apt., but that was so very long ago and I don't remember it well.
I googled her. (If you looked at her voting record and didn't know who's record that was, it might be hard to tell whether that person was a Democrat or a Republican!
Also:
She was vice chair of the Senate Republican Conference from 2009 to 2010 and chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee from 2015 to 2021. She has served as vice chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee since 2021.
In 2021, she was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial ; the Alaska Republican Party censured her for that vote.
True. And in some place ya never know whose saree will come into view next!
(Not my photo)
Our so called "allies" to the north.
How about you pay for your own damn defense; instead of leaching off the US?
With hypersonic missiles happening these days, don't you think you need a buffer zone?
And isn't that a reason he wants to acquire Greenland, which ISN'T contiguous to the USA?