90% Canadians

From the CBC:

“Why many Canadians support the Canada-U.S. border closure, despite the costs”

Canadian support for keeping the border closed to Americans remains strong, despite a decline in new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and a decimated tourism industry. A new poll by pollster Research Co. found that out of 1,000 Canadians surveyed online at the end of August, a whopping 90 per cent agreed with the current Canada-U.S. border closure to non-essential traffic.  The show of support comes at a time when several Canadian border cities are licking their wounds over a loss of U.S. tourism. Nevertheless, they're maintaining their support for the border closure, to help stop the spread of COVID-19 from the country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths. "As much as this hurts — and it hurts — it's all about short-term pain for long-term gain," said Jim Diodati, mayor of Niagara Falls, Ont. He said that pre-pandemic, U.S. tourism pumped close to $1 billion annually into the economy of Niagara Falls and its surrounding area. Even so, Diodati said he supports the border closure, and so do around a dozen other Ontario border-town mayors who took part in a video conference call with the federal government last week. "We're not in a hurry to open that border until we've got control of what's happening on both sides," he said.

Mike Bradley, the mayor of Sarnia, Ont. — who was also on the call — agrees. Tourists from neighbouring Michigan usually bring millions of dollars annually into Sarnia's economy, but not this year.   "We need to take care of our own people first," said Bradley. "Of all the steps that we've taken in Ontario and taken locally to protect our public … to give all that up now, for a bump in dollars just doesn't make sense." The Canada-U.S. border closure to non-essential traffic expires on Sept. 21. While American travellers — with the exception of some immediate family members — are barred from entering Canada, the U.S. still allows Canadians to fly to the country. Both Ontario mayors predict the Canadian government will announce this week that it will extend the border closure for at least another 30 days.  "I think it's kind of a foregone conclusion," said Diodati.

U.S. numbers decline Canadians began loudly expressing support for the Canada-U.S. border closure on social media in July, when U.S. COVID-19 case numbers were soaring to new and worrisome highs.  Since then, the U.S. numbers have declined — but Canadian support for the border closure hasn't. According to U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics, new daily U.S. cases peaked above 70,000 in late July, then dropped to below 50,000 per day by mid-August.  "It's going down very rapidly," U.S. President Donald Trump said last week. He said the U.S. has done "an amazing job" combating the spread of the virus. Despite the news, Canadians continue to warn Americans to stay away. In the latest case last week, a truck with Texas license plates in Victoria was vandalized and spray-painted with "Trump."

Canadians are also on the lookout for American travellers sneaking into the country.  George Creek — a member of a group of volunteer boaters reporting U.S. pleasure boat sightings in Canadian waters to border officers — said he's far from convinced that the U.S. has the virus under control. "They're so fractured down there. They have no national cohesive approach," said Creek, who lives just outside Nanaimo, B.C.. "Their [medical] experts are being ignored." Global health specialist Steven Hoffman suggested that even with a decline in case numbers, many Canadians will continue to support the border closure due to concerns that politics is influencing the U.S. response to the virus. "It really starts to raise questions among people as to whether the response is being designed in a way to maximize its effectiveness, or is it being designed in a way to maximize or to influence the outcome of a forthcoming election," said Hoffman, a professor of global health, law and political science at Toronto's York University. For example, at a U.S. rally in June, Trump told a group of supporters — who weren't required to wear masks — that he wanted to "slow the [COVID-19] testing down."  Last month, the CDC changed its guidelines on COVID-19 testing to recommend that asymptomatic people who come into contact with an infected person "do not necessarily need a test." The guideline change has been reportedly tied to Trump.  Critics have also accused Trump of downplaying the severity of the virus.  "There's a lot of reasons why everyone in the world should be concerned about the way that this pandemic has been addressed in the United States," said Hoffman.  Diodati of Niagara Falls predicts Canada won't entertain discussions over reopening the Canada-U.S. border until after the U.S. election, when perhaps politics is no longer muddying the waters. "We call this silly season when there's an election," he said. "Let's let the Americans get through their election process ... and then we're going to probably have more meaningful dialogue." The Research Co. poll surveyed 1,000 adults in Canada online between Aug. 30 and Sept. 1. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points, nineteen times out of 20.

^ As a Canadian-American I believe the wide-support for the continued closure of the US-Canada Border has more to do with Canadian Xenophobia and a “Canada First” mentality rather than about Covid-19. Canada only has one border to worry about and they aren’t letting in any non-Canadians into Canada with very limited exceptions. Since March 2020 the Canadian Border has been closed to all travelers who “who are not citizens, permanent residents or U.S. citizens. Exceptions are placed for diplomats, crew and immediate family members of citizens with clearing a basic health assessment by air operators.” Americans were later added to this travel ban. Even though Canada is realizing they need the world a lot more than the world needs Canada (nearly everything has to be imported into Canada – including PPE and a Covid-19 Vaccine -  when one is made since Canada was working on one with China and that has stopped.) I have seen and heard of Canadians becoming violent on foreigners – including Americans – and I believe that is because of their renewed sense of “Canada First.” They want to follow a country like the United States in being patriotic and showing they are the best, but whereas Canada has to rely heavily on other countries for most things the United States continues to be the sole Super Power around the globe influencing everything from food to culture to technology. What do Canadians have? A Prime Minister who is currently under investigation for his 3^rd ethnics violation in the past 5 years (after being found to be unethical in the first two cases with no consequences.) Canadians need to realize that they need the world and need to be open to it. The anti-foreigner stance and violence across the country needs to stop.  ^

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-u-s-border-closure-support-mayors-tourism-trump-1.5722974