Tariff war brings chill through Pearson airport as travellers navigate 'unfortunate' reality

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“There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.”

That is the much-used phrase from the 1939 classic movie The Wizard of Oz that the Good Witch Glinda, waving her wand, gets Dorothy to recite as she closes her eyes and clicks her ruby red heels to return to Kansas.

But at Pearson International Airport on Wednesday, Frank and Manon McAllister weren’t exactly clicking their heels as they returned from a warm trip from Jamaica, through Toronto, onto Seattle and then home to Wasilla, Alaska, north of Anchorage.

During their trip, they knew what had transpired with the U.S. imposing blanket tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, President Donald Trump continuing to suggest that Canada should become their 51st state and Tuesday’s much-talked-about Trump speech to Congress. They were also happy about Canada winning the Four Nations Face-Off tournament after a heated clash with the U.S. men’s hockey team.

“I’m very worried about it,” said Frank. “I don’t think it’s the right way to do business, the right way to treat people and I’m sorry.”

“I’m very upset,” said Manon, who comes from a French-Canadian background in Ottawa and has relatives in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec.

“But people also travel through B.C. to get to Alaska and they are worried that Canadians will start putting tariffs there. Tit for tat.

“But I think a lot Americans are still against what Trump is doing putting tariffs on, saying they are still our neighbours. Still our friends.

“But unfortunately, he (Trump) is not listening to the people.”

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Manon, who worked in nursing, and Frank, who was a carpenter for decades, said they are embarrassed by Trump and jokingly wished Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “would buy us” since Alaska is connected to Yukon and British Columbia.

Asked whether they saw any of Trump’s speech to Congress, Manon said they didn’t because they were on a plane from Jamaica.

“We did not hear it,” said Manon, “and did not want to listen to it because we knew it was going to be bad news.”

The McAllisters were looking forward to getting home to their Chihuahuas Maggie and Pearlie and the neighbourhood moose, who shows up to drink water outside of Frank’s backyard shed.

Ally Frankle, who works for a small U.S. cosmetics company in New York City and is originally from Philadelphia, felt the same way as her fellow Americans.

“I’ll say I did not vote for Trump, I am not Trump fan — for quite a lot of reasons,” said Frankle. “I think the tariffs are quite unfortunate.

“I also think that Canada is such a close neighbour to the U.S., I feel horrible it’s having such an effect on this country that we have so much in common with.

“I think it just seems like another way for him to exert some power that doesn’t help anybody but himself.”

Frankle said she loves coming to Toronto for business, everybody is supportive of her and has no animosity toward her, yet she wasn’t too happy about heading home.

Christian Boehler, who is from Barrie, was headed south to Myrtle Beach, S.C., to visit his “snowbird” parents and their friends for spring break, but was a bit trepidatious about the trip.

“There was some talk and hesitation about whether to go,” said Boehler about his parents going this winter. “That was back in late Decemeber, so things hadn’t heated up as much at that point as they have now.

“I’m a little skeptical about what to expect, the attitudes. Is there going to be any difficulties coming back? What you purchased?

“We’ll just have to wait and see.”