On Saturday morning, Tom Morphet – the mayor of Haines, Alaska — played “O Canada” on a trumpet as cars streamed into a parking lot along the Klondike Highway. Temperatures were hovering in the mid-teens as Alaskans and Canadians got ready for a Nordic ski race.
Carmen Gustafson, from White Horse in Yukon Territory, was among them. Decked out in Canadian swag, she said making the trip this year felt more important than ever – despite a burgeoning movement among Canadians to boycott the U.S.
“Our idea was to still come,” Gustafson said. “But we thought we’d wear some flags and be patriotic and just let everybody know that things aren’t really okay right now.”
The Buckwheat International Ski Classic is a themed event that’s been around for decades. The races – a 5K, 10K, 16K and 32K – happen in British Columbia. And the awards ceremony and afterparty are held just across the border, in Skagway.
But the run-up to this year’s event looked a little different. President Donald Trump has called multiple times for the annexation of Canada – conducted by, quote, “economic force.” He’s also sparked a global trade war, in part by imposing 25% tariffs on some Canadian imports.
The ordeal has led some Canadians to decide against spending money in or visiting the U.S. for the time being. According to a survey of more than 1,500 Canadians by Canadian market research firm Leger, 36% have canceled pre-planned trips to the U.S.
And U.S. Customs and Border Patrol data shows that about 2.2 million travelers crossed land borders from Canada into the U.S. in February of this year – roughly 500,000 fewer than last year, CBC reported this week. That’s the fewest since April of 2022, when some Canadian travel restrictions were still in place after the COVID-19 pandemic.
For months, that’s been top of mind for many in Alaskan border towns, including Jaime Bricker, Skagway’s tourism director.
“We’ve received a lot of correspondence from potential Canadian visitors that have expressed their frustration with the current situation, and that they may not be able to visit Skagway until this has resolved itself,” Bricker said.
The situation has pushed some local government officials to write letters and take other steps, both to show supportfor Canadians and to encourage visits to Alaska amid escalating hostility.
The week before the Buckwheat ski race, organizers said the turmoil might lead fewer Canadians to register or to attend post-race events in Skagway. But roughly the same number of participants – around 270 – registered this year as last year. And nearly 70% were Canadian.
Which means on race day, the parking lot was bustling. Many people arrived dressed to this year’s theme: “creatures of the deep, enchantment of the ski.” Skiers took off from the start dressed as mermaids, jellyfish, sea monsters – and a can of tuna.
Not long after the final skiers started their race, a party at an aid station was in full swing. Music blared as volunteers served burgers and beer from inside a giant snow fort carved with sea creatures.
Whitehorse resident Ghislain de Laplante was busy chasing his kids around the sculpture after he finished the race. But he stopped for a minute to chat. He said Canadians are ‘“right pissed” at the U.S. government.
“The tariffs obviously feel like a slap in the face,” de Leplante said. “And then the talk about annexation and military intervention is absolutely disrespectful and not welcome.”
But Deleplante also noted that nobody at the race seemed to be talking politics at all. He thought that was because people were more interested in unity than antagonism – and that they understand federal policy has little to do with their friends in Alaska.
“We love our American neighbors, which is why this comes as such a shock and an offense,” de Leplante said. “It is an offense.”
Ed Gillis, also a Whitehorse resident, acknowledged the boycott movement, but thought it might pertain more to the Lower 48 than Alaska. He didn’t change his plans to attend Buckwheat this year, as he has for much of the last decade.
“We weren’t going to miss it again this year, just because of everything going on,” Gillis said. “We were saying it’s like a diplomatic mission, we’re coming up to get to see our neighbors and chat and just show support for each other.”
Gillis said he would go to the awards ceremony in Skagway, as he always does.
Later that evening, the emcee announced race winners and other awards to a noisy crowd. Among them was best costume. The prize: a free weekend in a cabin near Skagway, and a helicopter shuttle to get there and back.
This year, the award went to a Whitehorse resident – who raced as a floating island of trash.
