London, Ont., snowbirds among Canadians saying so long to Sunshine State over Trump's threats
'I've never had this many listings in my life,' Florida Realtor says of Canadian clients
When wintertime calls, go where it's warm.
More than one million Canadians do just that every year, including heading south to the U.S., most often to Florida.
Dorothy Chabot and her husband were among them. The London, Ont. snowbirds have travelled to the Sunshine State for the past 15 years, owning a condo in Port Charlotte and more recently renting at a 55-plus community southwest of Orlando.
But this winter, as U.S. President Donald Trump continued threatening punishing tariffs against Canada and annexing it as the 51st state, the couple decided they'd had enough.
"We decided that at the end of February we were not going to sign our lease again. We were going to give it up, and we were going to stay in Canada and be very supportive of our country," Chabot told CBC News.
Chabot said a number of her neighbours were supportive, but recalled a frustrating interaction with one who gleefully told her, 'Oh Dorothy, can't you just wait 'til you're our 51st state?'"
"What [Trump] has said about our country … These are our people. We love our people. We love our country. We're not going back."
Many Canadian sellers, few Canadian buyers
It appears Chabot isn't alone.
Alexandra DuPont, a Fort Lauderdale Realtor who frequently works with Canadian snowbirds, said 36 listed condos with her.
"I've never had this many listings in my life," said DuPont, herself a Canadian expat. At this time of year, she would normally have 10 to 15. "Buyers? I think I have one" from Canada, she said.
More home purchases in the U.S. are done by Canadians than any other country — 13 per cent from April 2023 to March 2024, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) says. Half of all Canadian purchases were vacation homes, and roughly 41 per cent of sales were in Florida.
Even before Trump returned to office, however, Canadians were selling their properties because of the weak loonie and higher insurance costs. At least a quarter of international sales in the aforementioned period were by Canadians, more than double from a year earlier.
DuPont said tariffs and Trump have been cropping up more this month as reasons some clients are listing. But she wonders whether some were already thinking of selling over the weak loonie compared to the U.S. dollar, and pulled the trigger because of Trump's threats.
"A lot of my clients … they'll email me, text me, call me. They want weekly updates. I almost feel helpless. There's no update, there's no showing, there's no offers."
Trump has directed a range of complaints and tariff threats at Canada since November, rattling financial markets and causing recession fears. It's also sparked a wave of Canadian patriotism, with calls to buy only Canadian products, avoid travel to the U.S. and to be "elbows up."
Some Canadian officials believe Trump's ultimate goal is to weaken the Canadian economy to annex the country. On Wednesday, he increased tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from U.S. allies to 25 per cent, vowing to take back wealth "stolen" by other countries. Canada's dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs took effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
More than three million Canadians visited Florida, according to the state's tourism agency, and some cities are bracing for fewer tourists and snowbirds.
"I have started to receive emails from Canadians who say they're never coming back here, or they're not coming back here for at least four years until things change," Stacy Ritter, CEO of Visit Lauderdale, Broward County's tourism board, told The Current recently.
"This has been a conversation that has consumed us for the past three months. What are we going to do? How are we going to market ourselves?"
Nationwide, a 10 per cent drop in Canadian travel to the U.S. would have an economic hit of roughly $2.1 billion and impact some 14,000 jobs, the U.S. Travel Association says.
The U.S. will also soon require all foreign nationals in the country for more than 30 days to apply for registration and fingerprinting with immigration officials. Canadians are exempt from fingerprinting, but the new rule is a major departure, advocates for seniors say.
In a notice last week to its members, the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) urged vigilance for snowbirds, saying "failure to comply could result in civil or criminal penalties."
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With files from Andrew Brown, Reuters, and The Canadian Press