— from The Washington Post —
TORONTO — In normal times, this would be the high season for Eric Brown’s Ontario fishing lodges. In these times, he wonders if his business can survive.
Brown says Americans make up 95 percent of the business at his Totem Resorts in Sioux Narrows. Travel restrictions on the U.S.-Canada border, he said, have “absolutely devastated us.”
“It’s just heartbreaking to watch it all dissolve — 42 years of my legacy disappear in one season.”
As restrictions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus drag into a fourth month, Brown and other business operators are pushing officials to consider ways to let at least some tourists in. But they’re running into resistance from the broader population, which appears to have little appetite for lifting the restrictions.
Amid a general sense here that Canada has handled the coronavirus better than the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in June there was “broad consensus” among provincial leaders to keep current measures along the 5,500-mile frontier in place.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he wants the border to stay closed to nonessential travelers beyond the current July 21 end date. British Columbia’s health minister last week rattled off the record numbers of new cases in hard-hit U.S. states.
A national survey by Destination Canada, a crown corporation that markets Canada as a tourist destination, found that just 24 percent of people in Quebec somewhat or strongly agreed with welcoming U.S. visitors — and they were the most enthusiastic province. In British Columbia, the figure was 6 percent.
“Canadians look at what’s happening with the spread of covid in the United States and their comparatively better performance at getting it under control,” said Edward Alden, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “And they have no interest at all in Americans coming to Canada.”
The concern is not hypothetical.
British Columbia’s health ministry last month showed that the second-largest grouping of covid-19 strains in the province originated in Washington state. Bonnie Henry, the province’s top doctor, said cross-border travel was responsible for “seeding outbreaks in our communities.”
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What about the people in Pt. Roberts?????