Annual migration from frigid Canadian winter to Florida sunshine could become thinner as travellers look elsewhere
T
he annual migration of hundreds of thousands of Canadian “snowbirds” escaping freezing temperatures in their homeland and heading to warmer US states such as Florida for the duration of the winter could be about to become noticeably thinner.
Many have ditched plans to visit their southern neighbor and are looking to spend their valuable dollars elsewhere, largely put off by Donald Trump’s escalating economic war with Canada and strict new immigration rules that have created fear and confusion.
“There’s some resistance. There’s always someone calls in [from Canada] and says, ‘No, no more US! Before we were friends, and now enemies,’” said Richard Clavet, a Canadian originally from Quebec who has owned a motel and apartment rental business in Fort Lauderdale popular with snowbirds for more than three decades.
