Maine’s 176 craft breweries are already feeling the impacts of tariffs on aluminum and other packaging materials from Canada. Canadians’ reservations at Vermont hotels are down by 45%. And in Massachusetts, where nearly 2,400 Canadians study each year, Gov. Maura Healey is wondering about the impacts on research institutions and teaching hospitals.
Governors shared those numbers Monday during a summit Healey hosted to bring together top officials from the six New England states, New York and six Canadian provinces.
New England governors and premiers of Eastern Canada have been meeting since 1973, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said. This particular gathering was designed for the leaders to highlight their bonds and forge new partnerships at a tense moment between the two countries.
“Look, everyone around this table is trying to deal with a situation that was thrust upon us,” Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said in a moderated discussion after the officials met privately Monday morning in a State House function room. “Nobody here created this situation that’s created this divide between our countries. And Canadians, when they hear the talk of the 51st state stuff, we’re pretty ticked off about that. It kind of makes us really upset, but when we get together and talk about what’s possible and how do we move forward, that’s the stuff that we should focus on.”
President Donald Trump’s repeated comments about annexing Canada into a state and the tariff-driven trade war have strained relations between the two countries.
But the strained relations weren’t on display at Monday’s summit. The governors and premiers described the heightened tensions as a temporary challenge to work through and highlighted the opportunity for regional collaboration on energy, tourism and supply chain issues.
Despite a region-wide decline in tourism from Canada, Healey said the governors are committed “to marketing the Northeast as a great destination for Canadians to come and visit, still in this time.”
That effort is underway in Maine. Gov. Janet Mills brought with her a sign, displayed in businesses throughout her state, with a welcome message to Canadians in both English and French.
“We continue to have positive relationships with people of Canada, economic relationships,” Mills said. “We share cuisine. We share language. We share an awful lot that will not, cannot, be broken by somewhat aberrational language coming from certain parties in D.C. We are talking to our congressional delegations time after time to make sure they reinforce our stand not just on tariffs, but on Canadian-American relations, which are extremely important to us.”
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, said the governors and premiers have “massive influence” in Washington, D.C. and the Canadian capital of Ottawa. He said they plan to speak out more to get their message across.
New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt said she couldn’t currently recommend that Canadians travel to the U.S, though she acknowledged she didn’t like the idea of Americans in hospitality jobs potentially losing work over a tourism decline. Instead, Holt encouraged Americans to “tell your leader that this is hurting the American economy.”
Holt also said she sees a workforce opportunity for Canada in U.S. federal policy like cuts to research funding and a crackdown on international students, at least in the short term.
“So maybe we’ll borrow your talent for a little while, and then when we get back to normal – because that’s all we want, we all want to get back to the normal relationship of Canada and the U.S. being best friends, great neighbors, and working for the mutual benefit of our societies,” she said.
That “borrowing” of talent could lead to “the kind of connected partnerships between our research organizations that could stand the test of time,” Holt said.
Copyright 2025 WGBH Radio