In case you’re a Canadian, some Seattle companies have a message for you: Sorry about all that. Additionally: Please preserve visiting!
The weekend that begins Friday, Might 9 is when the Mariners host the Toronto Blue Jays, Canada’s solely Main League Baseball staff. Every time the Blue Jays come to city they bring about a flock of northern followers with them. “They take over the waterfront, the downtown inns, all of the eating places, and there’s as many Blue Jay hats and jerseys at T Cellular Park as there are Mariner issues,” says Bob Donegan, the president of storied native seafood chain Ivar’s. “It’s only a pleasant weekend.”
For that weekend, Ivar’s, Ethan Stowell Eating places, and a bunch of Seattle inns and tourist-oriented companies are giving Canadians a deal. They’re taking Canadian {dollars} (discounting tabs by 30 p.c to make up for the trade price) from anybody who can present a Canadian ID. It’s a marketing campaign known as Open Arms for Canada, and it was hatched by a bunch of native businesspeople, together with Donegan and Howard Wright, the top of Seattle Hospitality Group. Lots of the taking part companies are owned wholly or partially by SHG, together with the Area Needle, Fremont Brewing, and Kenmore Air.
“We love our Canadian neighbors. And we remorse how our federal authorities is treating you. We want we may change what occurs within the different Washington,” says the marketing campaign’s web site. “What we are able to do is present you our thanks for being right here.”
Although the web site doesn’t point out both T-word (Trump, tariff), it’s clear what that is in response to. Since being inaugurated as president earlier this 12 months, Donald Trump has antagonized Canadians by referring to their nation as “the 51st state” and jokingly — or not jokingly — speaking about annexing the U.S.’s northern neighbor. Trump additionally positioned harsh tariffs on Canadian-made items. In response, Canadians have boycotted U.S. merchandise and simply elected Mark Carney as prime minister somewhat than the Trump-esque Conservative Celebration chief Pierre Poilievre. “Trump has single-handedly created the best surge of nationalist anti-Americanism in Canada’s historical past as an unbiased nation,” Vox wrote this week following the election outcomes.
This era of pressure has been jarring for Seattle companies which have longstanding ties to Canada. Ivar Haglund, the people singer who based Ivar’s, donated the animals in his aquarium to Vancouver, British Columbia, when he closed it down, says Donegan. “And Ivar’s was the biggest advertiser on Vancouver radio and tv through the ’50s and the ’60s, as a result of every time any Canadians got here to city, he needed to cease by the waterfront and go to Acres of Clams,” provides Donegan. “So we’ve had a protracted relationship with Vancouverites and British Columbians.”
Open Arms for Canada is about ensuring that Canadians know companies like Ivar’s nonetheless worth that relationship, even when the present U.S. management doesn’t. The marketing campaign is an effort to indicate solidarity from a group of manufacturers that usually keep away from any controversy. In reality, Donegan says that Ivar’s avoids making any statements about politics or faith, a dictate that he doesn’t assume Open Arms for Canada violates.
There received’t be any massive commercials for Open Arms for Canada, however Donegan has been speaking to Canadian tour operators and different companies north of the border to unfold the phrase. And Washington companies who want to take part within the marketing campaign are welcome to hitch by getting in contact by way of an e-mail tackle on the backside of the web site.
Nothing official is deliberate past Blue Jays weekend, nevertheless Donegan says that if the connection between Canada and the U.S. remains to be bitter, native businesspeople could give you one thing else to display help for Canadians.
“We just like the Canadians a lot,” he says. “They’re pleasant, they’re nice, they’re household folks, they usually received that pleasant accent, eh?”
