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News.com.au
2 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Point Roberts, Washington: the US town that only exists due a mistake made 180 years ago
'If I want a pizza or sushi, I have to go to another country,' said Steve O'Neill. 'There are three million people right next door and some days I will walk down the beach and see no one.' For Mr O'Neill life in Point Roberts is bucolic but full of absurdities. Perhaps the biggest of which is that this American outpost might not even exist today were it not for the thickness of a pencil – and potentially the thickness of the people using that pencil – almost 180 years ago in 1849. 'It can feel like the film The Truman Show,' he added of the exclave of Washington state. 'You can walk but there's also this limit to how far you can walk.' The limit Mr O'Neill is referring to is the border between the US and Canada. The two nations have one of the world's longest frontiers but few parts are as odd as here in Point Roberts. A rural hinterland which directly abuts the vast suburbs of Vancouver, Canada's third largest city. The US exclave is located on the base of a peninsula whose only land connection is to Canada. A tiny part of the US, barely 13 sqkm in size, seemingly forgotten by America and almost entirely dependent on a foreign nation. 'We're a no man's land, separated from the US, not part of Canada,' said Mr O'Neill, who has lived there since 1999. For decades, the border was just a daily wrinkle for Point Roberts' residents: a cheery wave to border guards as Americans headed north for pizza and sushi – and school and work – as Canadians headed south for cheap petrol and to pick up packages from the US avoiding international postage. Then Covid came and Canada sealed the border decimating business for two years. The border is back open but US President Donald Trump's continued mutterings of Canada becoming the '51st state' have delivered another economic blow with many Canadians now refusing to pop across to Point Roberts. 'Trump hit us hard' From Sunday, Canada hosts the G7 summit of the world's wealthiest nations. Australia's Anthony Albanese will be a special guest at the chin wag which will discuss tariffs, wars and the environment. But all eyes will be on Mr Trump. Any further annexation talk by the US president will be met with disdain by Canada's new Prime Minister Mark Carney and with despair in Point Roberts. 'The 'elbows up' Canadian boycott election stunt hit hard,' Point Roberts local Kathryn Trainor told 'Right now the exchange rate and our gasoline carbon taxes make it cheaper to buy fuel in Canada. 'It's pretty grim and some people super duper hate Trump being president again.' Point Roberts is beautiful – but bonkers. Forty minutes from Vancouver's CBD, the skyscrapers give way to neat Canadian suburbia that wouldn't look out of place in Australia. Semi-detached homes with double garages face well maintained parks with outdoor barbecues. Small strips of takeaways, laundrettes and convenience stores are close by. Then it all comes to a sudden, shuddering halt. A row of yellow bollards and warning signs marks of both the end of suburbia – and Canada. It would be easy to just walk over the unguarded barrier to the seeming wilderness of maple and cedar trees beyond. But to do so would be a felony of international proportions. Use the tiny borders crossing instead. On the US side, in Point Roberts, live around 1300 people. On the Canadian side, in the suburb of Tsawwassen which covers a similar area, there are 24,000 people – almost 20 times as much. From the air at night it can look a bit like North and South Korea. Busy Vancouver shines brightly. Then a straight line and just a few lights flicker in Point Roberts. The 1849 pencil stroke the ricochets today 'We're minutes from downtown Vancouver but people would be hard pressed to find us on a map,' Mr O'Neill told Blame the maps on the British. In the 19th century, the UK and US were still battling it out as to who would control the North American continent. In Washington and London pencil lines were furiously drawn on maps. The result was the 1849 Treaty of Oregon which set the border in the west at the 49th parallel. The British were savvy enough to ensure the entirety of the strategically important Vancouver Island, south of the 49th parallel, was in its column. But when the pencil lines were drawn the Point Roberts peninsula was so small that the British didn't realise they had handed over the tiniest southern tip of it to the US. Realising their error, London belatedly asked the US to allow Point Roberts to be within British – now Canadian – control. Reportedly, they received no reply and the treaty stood. Ms Trainor moved to Point Roberts from Texas to bring her children up in peace and quiet. 'The kids go to the beach and do nature walks every day. They have more of a holistic experience which is really good.' Compact houses dot the tree lined lanes of Point Roberts. The area's one supermarket, a big box which seems out of place in the rural setting, flies the US and Canadian flags and accepts both currencies But Point Roberts comes with challenges. Students that choose US over Canadian schools endure a daily coach trip that's 40 minutes each way and crosses an international frontier four times. Any fire that erupts in Point Roberts has to be extinguished by volunteer fire fighters from Canada. Few Americans visit or settle in Point Roberts because the multiple border crossings make it hard to get too – so it generally relies on Canadians. But US visa rules mean Canadians can only visit for 180 days a year so few of them are able to settle in Point Roberts even if they wanted too. A stark sign of that is house prices in Point Roberts are around three times less than just a few metres away across the border. When the border was closed during Covid things went downhill. For a time locals couldn't even drive through Canada to get to the US. While visits to Canadian doctors were no longer allowed. At great expense Washington state laid on a ferry to the US mainland so residents weren't entirely stranded. Residents would trek up to the frontier, next to a stone obelisk marking the border, and mingle with their Canadian neighbours. But they had to remain on their side of the 49th parallel or risk the wrath of the border guards. For two years, barely a Canadian visited the exclave. But now the border is open, the ferry has stopped and the people of Point Roberts set about enticing Canadians back. Tremendous beauty Mr O'Neill's dream is to open the Blackfish resort, in an old fish cannery. It would be a boutique hotel, restaurant and spa that he hopes will entice Canadians year round to revel in Point Roberts' city adjacent wildlife and wilderness. 'It's got a tremendous natural beauty. I see eagles and blue herons every day; I've kayaker with Orcas hundreds of times. 'We get people coming down here for gas and parcels but what if they could get a cup of coffee, lunch, and a cocktail? 'It would make Point Roberts more accessible, and every business would be better off,' he said. 'We need that. I've got three children that left because there's no opportunities.' 'Our regulars are offended' Neil and Krystal King, who own a souvenir shop in Point Roberts, had a quirky idea to give visitors a quirky reason to linger. The pair opened the world's only rubber duck museum. 'We already sold rubber ducks in our shop. We did research, and were like 'wait, the history of rubber ducks is really interesting and nobody is telling it',' said Mr King. The modest museum has a rubber duck from 1911, an original moulding from the first mass-produced Disney Donald Duck toy from the 1930s and a modern Taylor Swift duck. Of course, there are copious ducks in all hues for sale. Mr King said border guards would tell them that when they asked why people were coming to Point Roberts many said it was because of the ducks. 'The day we opened, we had a line going through the store'. But since spoke to the Kings, everything has changed. 'Our regulars are all saying the same thing,' Mrs King told the US' National Public Radio in May. 'They're offended by the rhetoric from the White House. 'They don't like their sovereignty being threatened. They feel the only tool they have is boycotting the US and keeping those tourist dollars out.' It's tariffs too. Mostly made in China, the price of importing rubber ducks skyrocketed for the Kings. They're now moving their museum to the Canadian side of the border. 'We love having our quaint little shop here. 'But it's not a choice between moving the ducks to Canada or keeping them here; it's a choice between moving to Canada or closing.' No country has been Abel to spoil it Despite the seeming remoteness and peace of Point Roberts, the world isn't far away. Container ships to and from Vancouver's port and ferries connecting the islands of British Columbia glide silently by in the distance; the lights of the Canadian metropolis shimmer on the horizon. Wouldn't it just have been easier if Point Roberts had been officially detached from the US all those years ago? 'If Point Roberts was part of the contiguous United States or Canada it would be strip malls like the rest of the place,' said Mr O'Neill. 'It's unique because it's the bastard stepchild. 'Neither country has been able to spoil it'.
The Guardian
04-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
US's most Canadian town is stuck in the middle of a trade war
Point Roberts, Washington, is about as Canadian as a US town can get. Littered with streets named after Canada's provinces, its gas stations sell by the litre and about half of its 1,000 residents hold dual citizenship. Its sole grocery store, the aptly named International Marketplace, keeps both American and Canadian dollars stocked in its till. That till hasn't been getting much use in recent months. Ali Hayton, the International Marketplace's owner, estimates business is down by 30% amid an unprecedented dip in Canadian visitors. 'We're hanging on by a thread,' she said. Regions dotting the 49th parallel are feeling a chill from their formerly friendly neighbors as tensions rise between the US and Canada. The Trump administration's tariffs and threats to make Canada its 51st state have spurred a boycott of all things American, devastating areas that depend on northern tourists for their livelihood. Other US border towns retain the advantage of drawing in business from local Americans. But to reach Point Roberts, located south of Vancouver, you must first travel 25 miles through Canada. 'It's unfortunate that our little town is somewhat helpless,' said Wayne Lyle, president of the Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce. Some businesses in the pene-exclave have already shuttered their doors, while others are relocating to Canada. Across the community, reduced hours are creeping in. Locals worry that if the government doesn't step in to help, Point Roberts as they know it could cease to exist. Created by the 1846 Oregon Treaty, the five-sq-mile town borders Tsawwassen, British Columbia, and is otherwise surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. It has long had a synergistic relationship with Canadians, who own 70% of its homes and fuel its economy through summer tourism. Tamra Hansen, the owner of the local Saltwater Cafe and Pier restaurant, noticed something was awry shortly after Donald Trump enacted 25% tariffs on Canadian goods in February. 'It was a lot slower immediately,' said Hansen, whose sales plummeted by 55%. It isn't just levies causing Canadians to forego border crossings. Trump's hostile rhetoric towards Canada and his administration's hardline immigration policies have exacerbated frictions that could outlast any tariffs. The number of travelers crossing into Point Roberts this March decreased by 25% compared to last year, according to data from US Customs and Border Protection, with that decline deepening to 30% in April. 'They're really upset – and so they should be. Their sovereignty is at stake,' said Hansen of the messages she's received from customers. 'The problem is, 90% of my business is dependent on Canadian people.' The restaurateur claims the hit to sales is even more dire than during the Covid-19 pandemic, which businesses in Point Roberts were just beginning to recover from. Jobs will be lost across the community if nothing changes, according to Hansen, who said she will have to make some 'hard decisions' unless she receives support. In some cases, business owners have already been forced to make such decisions. Point to Point Parcel, a 24-year-old parcel store, shut down permanently in April and cited Trump's tariffs as the reason. A few roads away is a museum dedicated to vintage rubber ducks. Due to a sharp decline in foot traffic and sales, the Rubber Duck Museum will relocate over the border this summer to Tsawwassen. After tariffs hit Canada, maintaining the business in Point Roberts 'became immediately unsustainable', said co-owner Krystal King. The museum's challenges were compounded by levies on China that tripled the price of the ducks sold at its gift shop. 'Our customer base doesn't want to come here any more, and our products have gone through the roof,' said King. In an attempt to lure back customers, the International Marketplace, which has cut back on deliveries and hours, is striking vendor deals and running special promotions. Over the Easter weekend, it saw an uptick in sales after temporarily boosting the exchange rate for the Canadian dollar to 80 cents instead of 72 cents. Brian Calder, a resident of Point Roberts for more than four decades, has begun selling bumper stickers reading 'Point Roberts supports Canada' to repair the town's image. Earlier this year, he also wrote a letter to the British Columbia premier, David Eby, urging for an exemption from Canada's retaliatory tariffs. Point Roberts warrants a unique solution due to its geographic quirks, according to Calder, who is appealing for help on a 'humanitarian basis' to ensure its survival. While conceding that US border towns are struggling, Diana Gibson, British Columbia's minister of jobs, economic development and innovation, applauded British Columbians vacationing locally in a show of support for the province. 'Many of us have friends, family and colleagues in the United States – but this is an unprecedented time,' said Gibson in an emailed statement. Hayton, who last month attended a roundtable with Senator Patty Murray to discuss the fate of Washington's border towns, is worried Point Roberts could become a food desert if her grocery store closes. It almost got to that point during Covid before she received government assistance such as small business loans and employee retention tax credits. This time around, there are no such programs. 'I keep thinking, 'OK, this is going to get better,'' said Hayton. 'But if there comes a time where it's paying my employees or paying for a truckload of food, I'm going to pay my employees first.'
CNN
20-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
‘It's soul-crushing': A family divide shows how the ‘strongest bond' between US and Canada is being broken
Brian Calder's life and family have always straddled the 49th Parallel — the line on the map that divides much of the United States from Canada. A dual citizen, he was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and has lived most of his 84 years a few miles south in Point Roberts, Washington. The fact that Point Roberts dangles off the edge of British Columbia, relies almost entirely on Canada for its utilities and has no land connection to the rest of the US has largely not been an issue, until now. 'Half our families are on either side of the border and so we have a very strong — probably the strongest of any place in North America —bond between Canada and the USA,' Calder said. 'That's grossly threatened now by the disowning (of) Canada economically, and therefore emotionally, and it's soul-crushing,' he said. Tariffs, reports of detentions and President Donald Trump's repeated calls for annexing Canada as the 51st state are driving a wedge between the nations, and even relatives. Calder's family has been in Point Roberts for generations, first arriving in 1895, he explained. The economy of the town relies largely on traffic coming in from Canada, which includes the roughly 40 family members he estimated being on the Canadian side. But the once sure-footed dynamic has given way to some second guessing their relationship with the American exclave, even for family. 'They just feel more alienated from here because of what's happening,' Calder said from the American side of the international line. 'It's all driven, in my opinion, by the threat on the Canadian sovereignty,' he told CNN. If it had been the Canadian prime minister talking about absorbing the US, 'there'd be tanks on the border within an hour,' he added. He questioned if Trump's tactics were helping anyone. 'Both economies get negatively impacted – people are now mad at each other because of that goofy statement.' Bill Calder, his cousin, is one of those people. He lives in Tsawwassen, British Columbia, just a five-minute drive from the border and Point Roberts. The 85-year-old Canadian was also born in Vancouver and remembers spending 'every summer in Point Roberts.' Up until recently he would go down once or twice a week, sometimes just for leisurely visits if the weather was nice. Now, he 'would rather not.' Generations of history in Point Roberts are up against months of a new Trump administration. 'I'm not too happy about Mr. Trump,' he told CNN. 'The interest is not there to go down right now.' 'It's too bad, it's sad,' he continued. 'It used to be a wonderful place to go, it just doesn't seem to be as nice anymore' he said of the neighboring US town, adding his feelings had 'something to do with Mr. Trump being charge of it.' 'It's him,' he emphasized. Bill Calder's Canadian daughter fondly remembers spending summers in Point Roberts, and while she hasn't cut herself off from visiting, there is still 'quite a bit of hesitation to go down,' said Maggie Mori. The 50-year-old Mori lives in the Vancouver-area but owns a summer home in Point Roberts with her husband, where she's continued the generational tradition of bringing their kids to the Point. She's aware of the general animosity in Canada toward some of Trump's rhetoric. But her hesitation is more to do with her personal safety. 'There is some fear there still about being detained at the border,' she said, adding it is 'nerve-wracking.' 'I'd like to think Point Roberts is different, but it's not. It's still part of the United States,' she said, alluding to other incidents of tourists being detained at US borders. 'It's difficult to feel like that about Point Roberts,' she explained. 'For me, personally, it's just somewhere I love,' but even still, 'I am angry at America.' The Canadian government recently warned Canadians to 'expect scrutiny' when crossing the border and said US border officials have the authority to search travelers' electronic devices – including phones, laptops, and tablets – without providing a reason. That said, the Canadian government still rates the risk of travel to the United States as low and to take normal security precautions. The change in attitude has also had a real effect on business in a town where 70% of homes are owned by Canadians, as long-time real estate agent Hugh Wilson explained. 'It's the day trippers that aren't coming down here,' he told CNN. 'It's a lot quieter during the week,' he added, 'that's what's affecting the retail businesses.' Brian Calder, also former president of Point Roberts' chamber of commerce, estimated foot traffic has shrunk 'right down to probably 70% of what it was.' Border crossing data reflects much of that reality. In the months leading up to Trump's inauguration, traveler crossings were up at the Point Roberts point of entry as compared to the same time period the previous year. But in February there was a roughly 13% drop compared with February 2024. March then saw a 25% drop and April continued the spiral with a nearly 30% decrease in travelers compared to the same month last year, according to data from United States Customs and Border Protection, in line with the 25% year over year drop in crossings along the length of the US-Canada border in April. Dave Duncan, the manager at the town's only grocery store, told CNN in early April he estimated sales were down about 20% or 30% while Tamra Hansen, manager at the nearby Saltwater Café told CNN affiliate KOMO her sales were down 55% in February. Her café proudly declares 'Point Roberts residents support Canada.' For Wilson, the real estate agent, the future is still unknowable. 'This summer will definitely be the best indication,' he said, as to what the long-term effect may be for this town that relies on Canadian traffic to keep it alive. The only other time community members recall anything like the same disruption was during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the border was essentially shut down at points. But Mori draws a crucial distinction from that time. 'Covid was out of our control,' she explained. 'This is within somebody's control.' 'Everything can be amicable again, so it's really hard to reconcile why this is happening,' she continued. Trump's heightened rhetoric is widely credited with giving rise to Canada's newest Prime Minister Mark Carney. Mori was encouraged by Carney's first meeting with Trump in early May. 'It seems like the last meeting between Trump and our prime minister went OK,' she said. But Carney has also previously said, 'The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over.' Since Carney's meeting with Trump, he has unveiled a new cabinet 'with a strong mandate to define a new economic and security relationship with the United States,' his office said in a statement. But what will it take to bring people like Bill Calder back to his usual visits from Canada to the US? 'I don't know, we'll just have to wait and see what happens,' Calder told CNN. He still plans to go for his kids this summer but he definitely 'won't stay down there.' Down there, his cousin Brian told CNN he was feeling the absences on a personal level. 'It's very emotional,' he said. 'This is unnecessary,' he said of the new politically driven wedge between his two countries. 'There are no winners here, none. This is being run like a bad movie. I can't believe it.'
