BRATTLEBORO-Given so many angry protests about the Trump administration recently, some residents thought that a positive, welcoming, whimsical approach for just one day might add a breath of fresh air.
So they set up Vermont Canada Day.
The idea is simple: Canada is not an enemy, nor a potential 51st state, as the president has forebodingly suggested. It is, by many objective yardsticks, a good friend and neighbor of Vermont.
July 1, Canada Day, is the official Canadian celebration of independence and sovereignty, much like this country's Independence Day on July 4. So why not welcome Canadians to Vermont by symbolically making Vermont a part of Canada for just one day - the Canada Day - this summer?
"Vermont Canada Day would be Vermont's celebration support for Canadian sovereignty and independence and general goodwill and commerce and tourism, all rolled into one," said former Selectboard member Dr. Franz Reichsman, one of the founders of the Vermont Canada Day Organization, a.k.a. VtCanDO.
"Just for today, just for July 1, we're going to say Vermont is part of Canada," Reichsman said. "We're a province of Canada, if you will. And everybody who arrives in the state in their automobiles from the surrounding states, we welcome them with signs that say, 'Welcome to Canada.'"
This is not at all a bid for Vermont's permanent secession from the United States, he insisted.
"There was actually a time in American history where secession was on the table and acted upon," he said. "And you know, that really did not turn out well at all. So I don't want to go that route."
Instead, visitors to Vermont could be welcomed with maple leaf flags, for example.
"It's just a general, good-natured celebration of our goodwill and friendship for Canada," Reichsman said.
Looking at the numbers
Support for Canada from a bordering state might be a welcome gesture these days.
According to a BBC News report, "Border towns noticed almost instantly when U.S. President Donald Trump began imposing tariffs on countries around the world and saying he wanted to make Canada the 51st U.S. state - because the number of Canadians crossing the border plummeted."
"Border crossings between the U.S. and Canada are down some 17% since Trump started bringing in tariffs, according to CBP [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] data," the report continued. "Canadians' car trips to the U.S. are down almost 32% compared to March 2024, according to Statistics Canada."
"Some Canadians are canceling trips to Vermont because of Trump," blares a headline on a Vermont Public report citing the $2.6 billion in goods Vermont imports from Canada each year and noting that Canada is the state's largest foreign trade partner.
"It doesn't seem like a foreign country to us," said Jeff Lawson, vice president of tourism at the Lake Champlain Chamber, told Vermont Public. "It's just our neighbor, and it's a little bit alarming to see how quickly things can disintegrate, frankly."
This is why the friendly idea, then, of Vermont becoming part of Canada just for its one special holiday makes some sort of sense .
"It's just a bunch of people with flags and signs performing this little conceit that for one day, we could be part of Canada," Reichsman said. "It's just as a gesture. That's all."
Several local protest groups have successfully organized anti-Trump protests on the Interstate 91 overpasses in Brattleboro recently, Reichsman pointed out.
"So we would be standing on the overpass over Interstate 91 with signs saying, 'Welcome to Canada,' and waving Canadian flags," he said. "We want to very clearly state to our Canadian neighbors that we support them in maintaining their independence."
Reichsman called the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state "quite frankly, ridiculous, and also stupid, and also wrong. It is an example of the approach of the current administration to international affairs, which I think Vermonters do not support."
Making it statewide
Originally, the Vermont Canada Day group, which was founded in Windham County, wanted to put welcoming signs and flag-wavers on all of Windham County's entrances to Vermont - not only on Interstate 91, but also on the bridges crossing the Connecticut River from New Hampshire.
They set up a simple website with a photograph of a woman draped in a Canadian flag looking out over the Green Mountains. And they began talking up the idea with organizers around the state.
The original plan expanded to one that would deploy welcomers to almost all the important entrances to Vermont, including those in Franklin County, Chittenden County, Washington County, Windsor County, and Rutland County.
The idea was initially met with support, but to pull off a statewide action in two months, the Vermont Canada Day organizers also needed active personnel and funding. That proved to be a step too far for organizations with too many other things to protest and not very much whimsy on their list.
So, on May 9, Reichsman sent an email to most of the groups, addressed to "Friends, Allies and Canada Lovers," suggesting that they find a way to welcome Canadians on July 1 without tightly organized protests.
Instead, Reichsman wrote supporters calling off "a comprehensive local effort for July 1" in favor of encouraging a looser effort "for people who want to show their support for Canada on July 1 in various ways and in various locations, but not as tightly scheduled teams in assigned places."
"While we plan to publicize our ideas and encourage participation, it's going to be up to individuals or small groups to choose what they want to do, and how and where to do it," he wrote. "We now propose that this decentralized model be adopted elsewhere, too."
The idea is to say to the state's northern neighbors, loudly and clearly, "We don't think Canada is in any way beholden to the United States," Reichsman said.
"We don't think of Canada as anything other than a friend and ally and partner to the United States," he said. "The people who want to somehow annex Canada are wrong, and we oppose them and their efforts."
This News item by Joyce Marcel was written for The Commons.