DENVER | In Denver, where I spent the last few days writing about the NFL Conference Finals between the Broncos and Patriots, there’s a lot of love for the Canadiens. No, not necessarily the hockey team, but rather everyone who skates hard in these tense times with American President Donald Trump.
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I have spoken to you extensively about football in recent days and I will continue to do so, in a city where playoff fever is in full swing. Eager for the oval ball, have no fear, I am not announcing a jump into the political section of the Journal!
However, since I arrived in this vibrant Colorado city, several locals I speak to pay lip service to me on the political issue, probably because they notice my French accent and ask me where I come from.
After questions about interest in the NFL at home and a remark about how blessed I am to attend the game on Sunday, several expressed unease to me about the threats of annexation of Canada or the trade war.
“Everything was always going well between us until our president acted like a six-year-old. Let him leave Canada alone! “, railed Thursday my Uber driver, a man named James, who grew up a stone’s throw from Canada, in Michigan, before moving to Denver around twenty years ago.
Meeting with an elected official
It got to the point where I thought it would be nice to have the perspective of a local political leader during my stay. I cast a few lines in the water without much hope, but City Councilman Chris Hinds, from District 10 in downtown Denver, raised his hand to meet me.
“I had a meeting last summer in Detroit and since it’s on the border with Canada, I crossed. I enjoyed seeing the whole “Elbows Up” movement. I wanted to buy a sweater, which I would have proudly worn here to support Canada, but I couldn’t find one,” he told me, in an establishment near city hall.
“Elbows Up” is obviously the expression intended as a nod to hockey, popularized by the fiery style of the immortal Gordie Howe, which served as a rallying cry for Canadians when Trump began to speak of the country as the 51st American state.
“We appreciate your resistance here,” Chris Hinds told me.
A Democratic stronghold
You should know that there is nothing very surprising in the fact that everyone in Denver, or even local politicians, are sensitive to the Canadian cause and, above all, resistant to Trump.
The mayor’s office has been Democratic since the 1963 municipal election. As for the state of Colorado, it was majority Republican from 1920 to 2004, but since then it has turned blue in the last five presidential elections.
In Denver, apart from a demonstration a week ago against President Trump’s immigration policies, the climate is rather calm. We are light years away from the disruptions that are shaking Minneapolis, for example.
“For the moment…” Chris Hinds said during our interview.
“Federal immigration agents once showed up in Denver, supposedly to arrest a group belonging to Venezuelan gangs. There were hundreds of agents and they found one person, whom they released a few days later. There is what they say and there is reality. They are trying to demonstrate that Denver is a liberal hellhole that houses criminal gang members from other countries. In reality, they are incapable of demonstrating it,” said the municipal representative.
Tourism affected
Fewer Canadian skiers have been visiting the Colorado mountains in recent months. – Provided by Alterra
In a tourist information office at Union Station, an employee preferring not to be identified told me that many Canadians visit the Denver area to go skiing in the Rockies, but that in the current political context, we see them much less.
According to a recent report from local radio station KUNC, in 2025, the presence of Canadian tourists in the Colorado mountains would have dropped by 58% compared to 2024.
An observation that the municipal councilor, Chris Hinds, seconded.
“We no longer talk about fears. Our data shows us that tourism is declining here. We’re not just talking about Canadian tourism, but it’s a big part of our tourism. As citizens of Denver, we must understand that Canadians have every right to choose to go elsewhere,” he said.
The latter even comes to wonder if the situation can one day be repaired.
“It saddens me as the leader of a city to see that this fabulous relationship that we have always had with Canadians has been flushed. This is largely because of the actions of our national leader. It is unfortunate and destructive. »
Sometimes life on the road takes us beyond a sports game. This is just a small slice of life to show you that even in Denver, a city 1,000 miles from the border, the tension between Canada and the United States drives discussions.
But never more than the presence of backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham at the helm of the Broncos attack one step away from the Super Bowl, on the other hand!
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