As the US-Canadian trade dispute plays out, Canadians are changing the ways they travel. Grant Murray, a Vancouver attorney, used to visit the United States regularly for both business and leisure. He stopped his travels because of the coronavirus-driven trade war between the two countries. Canadians took just over 20.2 million trips to the United States in 2024. That figure is projected to drop to 15.7 million this year, reflecting a sharp drop of 22%.
The trade dispute has hit many Canadians personally and deeply. Murray is a prime example of this, as he ultimately decided to boycott traveling to the United States out of protest. For this reason and more, he still felt inclined to go to the World Series to cheer on the Toronto Blue Jays. Interestingly, he found that tickets for the game in Los Angeles were less expensive than the ones on offer in Toronto.
Murray noted, “The Canadian economy is being hurt. Lots of people are very concerned about their future. There’s a level of solidarity that I support, but I guess I’m now a hypocrite because I’m supporting the Blue Jays more than the boycott.”
Murray’s experience is increasingly becoming the norm for Canadian baseball fans. Professional artist and muralist Jat Yassine, a fellow Torontonian, had a hard time getting tickets to his hometown event. Prices jumped to two and three times what they started at—an additional hammer blow for him. Late last year, he blogged on the subject of tickets and gave his state’s situation as a concrete example. We wanted to go to them out there in Toronto, but they got snatched up really fast — even resale tickets were almost twice as much as in LA!
As of Monday evening, the cheapest average ticket prices for any World Series game were in both Houston and Arlington — each city’s prices were both above $1,400. That’s the cost of entry today — the cheapest available tickets on SeatGeek were around $400 in Toronto and $300 in Los Angeles. This jarring price disparity drove countless Canadian supporters to make the journey south to see their team battle it out.
Shimon Sitzer, a diehard Blue Jays fan originally from Toronto, made the game. There, he met with other young Canadians who told their own thrilling stories. Many had previously avoided traveling to the United States due to the trade dispute but made an exception for their beloved team. During her applause, Sitzer told us why the people she knows should have been there. The ongoing administration of President Donald Trump has stalled them. I met people at the game (from Canada) who said, ‘We’re not here to support the United States or its president, we’re here to support our baseball team.’”
Some might say that Murray wasn’t just devoted — he was downright heroic by showing up for the World Series. He even continued to forego regular-season games in the United States this year, prioritizing his loyalty to the Blue Jays over his travel boycott. His brother Kevin even traveled from Australia to attend the World Series game, underscoring the global reach of Blue Jays fandom.
As Canadians remain wary of international travel and engagement, they are willing to set aside all of those worries to rally around their major league baseball team. The World Series has spurred a significant uptick in Canadian travel, with tens of thousands of tickets sold, in Los Angeles.
