Canadians took it as a threat to their national sovereignty when President Trump said their country should become the 51st State.
That includes residents of the Yukon, some of whom travel to Alaska for recreation, while residents of Alaska border towns head north to the Yukon for things like groceries, veterinary care or emergency medical services.
But despite a kinship with their neighbors, some Yukoners are vowing not to travel to Alaska.
Whitehorse-based journalist Rhiannon Russell, a regional correspondent for the Canadian magazine The Walrus, wrote about that deteriorating relationship under Trump. And Russell says Canadians have plenty to be upset about.
Below is the transcript of an interview with Russell on Alaska News Nightly. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Rhiannon Russell: So I think it's the tariffs, the "51st state" kind of threats to our sovereignty. You know, just that. And the detentions. There was one case, a woman who grew up in Whitehorse, Jasmine Mooney, and she was detained in, I believe it was Arizona and California, for about 12 days for no, kind of, no apparent reason.
Yeah, people are just, I think, wary, maybe a bit freaked out, feel like they need to take a stand and decide, "No, I'm not going to go into this country that is threatening our country. It's not, it's not the right time."
Casey Grove: Well, that kind of brings up something that I wondered about: What's the feeling toward Americans, you know, either tourists or folks coming up for to use services in Whitehorse or just, you know, passing through on the Alcan (Alaska Highway). I mean, I know you can't speak for, like, the entire country, but how do you think people feel about that? I mean, there's that connection, of course, too.
RR: Yeah, for sure. There was a story on CBC a week or so ago about a woman from Alaska who was traveling through the Yukon, and she said that in Whitehorse she was honked at or shouted at, and she had American plates, or Alaskan plates. And our Yukon politicians condemned that.
I don't think that's what the majority of people are doing. I'm certainly not seeing identifiable Alaskans being harassed in the streets here. So I don't think, for the majority of people, the negative feeling is directed at Alaskans on a kind of micro level.
CG: Yeah? Well, that's good to hear.
RR: Yeah.
CG: I mean, I wonder, you know, do Canadians see Alaskans as significantly different than other Americans? Because I feel like oftentimes we do feel different.
RR: Yeah, I think that that is true. I think that Yukoners do see Alaskans as more like us, versus people in southern Canada. And I think maybe Alaskans would say the same about Yukoners compared to people in the Lower 48.
It's interesting, because politically, Alaska is pretty different, I would say, from the Yukon. But that aside, I think there is this kinship, because we are side by side, and we are more remote. We rely on each other more because we're further away from big southern cities. So yes, there definitely is close relationship there.
CG: I mean, along with rallies, you know, and things like that, some city governments and even the Legislature, part of it, has said, you know, "We respect Canada's sovereignty." Do you think people in the Yukon are seeing that? And, I mean, does that make much of a difference to them?
RR: I think so. Yeah, I think it's ... House (Joint) Resolution 11. I have spoken with a few people here about that, and it does seem to be a small source of hope in all of this, that the — I think it's the House of Representatives. I'm not totally sure how your government works over there — but that they put this together and now it's going to the Alaska Senate.
I do think for people here who know about that, it is meaningful. We'll see where that goes. But I think the fact that the Alaska House of Representatives said that they recognize Canadian sovereignty is, I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but it's good that that's on the record.
CG: I was delighted to learn that there's a magazine called The Walrus. You wrote about all of this, you know, in a piece for The Walrus. It seemed like you really caught the the vibe, caught, you know, people's sentiment in this moment in the Yukon. I mean, obviously these are big issues. And I wondered what drove you to want to write that piece?
RR: Someone that I know on Facebook had posted this letter that she wrote and she had sent to the mayors of Skagway and Haines, and to the tourism their tourism directors, basically her saying, "Given all that's going on with the U.S. and the comments that President Trump is making, I feel like I need to take a stand. I'm breaking up with Skagway and Haines, even though it breaks my heart to do it, but I'm not going to visit while all of this is going on."
And that is where the idea came from. I had been talking about it with other people, just as summer approached, "Oh, are you going to Alaska at all?" And you know some people saying, "Oh yes, like, I still plan to, because Alaska is different." But then a lot of other people saying that, no, they wouldn't be this summer, even though it was a hard decision.
CG: Yeah. I've seen, you know, headlines here in the U..S saying that global relations with the U.S. have been changed permanently by this administration. So I wonder, I mean, from your perspective, what do you think has to change to repair the relationship that, not just Canada and the United States have, but the Yukon and Alaska? Does it just mean four years from now, a new president, new policies. Is there anything we can do?
RR: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. There's still so much unpredictability with the whole situation that I don't know if things will get worse. Yeah, you could go in a lot of different directions with the what ifs.
And I don't know that there's anything Alaskans in particular can do to try to improve that bond, strengthen that bond, between the territory and Alaska. Yeah, I will be following the resolution to see where that goes. But who knows. It is a wild, wild world right now.
