On a Saturday in March, a handful of people who had met in a chat group gathered at Peace Arch Park to show support for their Canadian neighbors. The next weekend, 100 people showed up, waving U.S. and Canadian flags and holding signs expressing love and solidarity. The weekend after that, double the number came to the border as relations between the two countries waned.
At the end of the two-hour demonstrations, Canadian and American attendees line up for a time-honored tradition: the hockey-style handshake.
“Like in a sporting event, Americans and Canadians enjoy fierce competition, but we then shake hands, wish each other well and reaffirm our longstanding friendships,” said Haidee Landry, a Canadian living in Langley who has been involved since the demonstrations were first brainstormed in an online messaging group. “Those handshakes spur emotion and are some of the most heartfelt handshakes you’ll ever experience.”
Landry and her American co-organizer, Jeff Smith, are hopeful the next demonstration, set for noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 12, will be the biggest yet.
The gatherings are a tangible reminder that Americans still support their northern neighbors and want to build connection. The century-old relationship soured in recent months when President Donald Trump told then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Canada could become the 51st state.
Trump also imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum exports. In response, Canada placed a 25% tax on a range of American goods. Canadian politicians have encouraged citizens to stop spending money in the U.S., from not crossing the border to get gas to canceling planned Disney trips.
Southbound border traffic at Peace Arch dropped 43% in March compared to the same time in 2024, according to the Whatcom Council of Governments.
To understand how the demonstrations got started, look to the internet, where Landry, who lives 900 feet from the U.S. border, was added to a chat group filled with Americans looking to do something to show support for their northern neighbors.
It was in that virtual group that Landry, 60, met Smith, a 42-year-old Bellingham resident.
“A couple people mentioned what about doing something cool up at the arch,” Smith said. “We started talking about that as a potential option and we found Haidee.”
The conversation between Landry and Smith soon jumped to real life when they and a few others met at Peace Arch Park on March 18 to figure out what they could do to build connection as the relationship between the U.S. and Canada fractured.
“I’m delightfully surprised and hopeful from seeing this,” Smith said of the growing demonstrations. “I mean, protesting in Bellingham is great … but the thing on the border is completely different because that’s something where we can make a difference. People can see us and say, ‘They’re Americans that don’t support this.”
Across the country, similar borderland protests have popped up: from Point Huron, Michigan, and Sarnia, Ontario, to Buffalo, New York, and Fort Erie, Ontario.
Smith said conversations are happening at the grassroots level to organize a larger borderlands day of action across the U.S. and Canada later in the summer.
“They’re wonderful people,” Landry said of the supporters who’ve come to the demonstrations. “These are really, I think, the best of Americans. People who are standing up for their rights and freedoms … It is so heartwarming to see them and to get the feel of how very sad they are for what’s happening in the relationship between our two countries.”
At the end of the demonstration on Saturday, people from both countries will line up for another hockey handshake.
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
