Some Canadians heading south this year are keeping quiet about it. They aren’t posting the Yankees game, the Arizona condo or the Florida beach. A recent CNN feature used the phrase “elbows up, phones down” to describe a small but noticeable change in how travellers talk about their U.S. trips.
The silence has more than one cause. Part of it is social, since some people worry about what friends will think. Part of it is practical, since U.S. officers have wide powers over phones at the border. Here is what the data and the reporting show, and where the evidence runs thin.
A Quiet Shift in How Trips Get Shared
CNN spoke with Canadians who now say less to friends and family about their U.S. travel. One of them, Stefanie Ricchio, has a family tradition of attending Yankees games in New York, but US-Canada tensions have her saying less about those trips.[1] Others told the outlet they’d heard similar things from people around them.
Not everyone has stayed quiet, though. Toronto travel writer Barry Choi first kept his U.S. trips to himself, but now shares them on Instagram to more than 12,000 followers, something he has taken backlash for.[1] The picture is mixed, and it’s hard to say how many travellers have actually gone silent. The reporting is anecdotal rather than a measured trend.
What the Travel Numbers Show
The slowdown in travel is well documented. Canadian return trips from the United States fell about a quarter in 2025 compared with 2024, from roughly 39 million to 29.1 million.[2] Statistics Canada said the shift began as political tensions between the two countries grew in early 2025.
Automobile travel reacted fastest. In May 2025, same day car returns from the U.S. were down about forty percent from a year earlier, while overnight car travel fell by roughly a third.[2] Short hops across the line were apparently the easiest trips to give up.
A Rebound That Hasn’t Closed the Gap
By mid 2026 the numbers had started to climb again. In July, Canadian residents returned from 2.8 million trips to the United States, up about ten percent year over year, a fourth straight month of growth after fifteen months of declines.[3] That is a real turn, but it needs context.
Those July trips were still about a quarter below the July 2024 level.[3] Air travel has lagged too: return trips by air kept falling in June, down slightly from a year earlier.[4] Some Canadians are coming back, though many are not.
Why the Border Feels Different for Canadians
Much of the hesitation has political roots. Some Canadians have avoided crossing since early 2025, following the American administration’s trade war and the “51st state” threats from President Trump.[5] A survey cited by CNN suggests the mood hasn’t fully lifted.
The 2026 Environics Research outlook found that six in ten Canadians are either actively avoiding U.S. travel or would go but feel conflicted.[1] That conflicted group helps explain the quiet. Going is one decision, and announcing it is another.
The Social Media Question
For many Canadians, the fear isn’t the search itself but what it might find. A U.S. immigration lawyer interviewed by Vancouver Is Awesome said posts hostile to the president could raise concern for travellers. He wouldn’t call it impossible and said it depends on what someone is saying.[13]
That is a lawyer’s reading of the risk, not proof of a pattern. I couldn’t find hard data showing that Canadians have been refused entry over social media posts alone. Still, the uncertainty is enough to make some people think twice before posting, or before carrying a phone full of years of comments.
