With high gas prices and a trade war, get ready for a long stretch of low cross-border travel. If you drive a vehicle with a 14-gallon tank, that means a fill-up has gone from around $70 to $94 in Canada. Author of the article: By Tracy Moran. Published Apr 24, 2026. Last updated 6 minutes ago. 5 minute read.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Drivers are tiring of sticker shock at the pump. Before U.S. President Donald Trump began waging war with Iran in late February, Canadians were paying roughly $1.32 a litre, while Americans were paying around US$2.98 per gallon. Today’s prices, on average, are about $1.75 per litre and US$4.03 per gallon, respectively. If you drive a vehicle with a 14-gallon tank, that means a fill-up has gone from around $70 to $94 in Canada, and from roughly $41 in the U.S. up to $56 today. Most folks remember that fuel cost nearly 30 per cent less in both countries last year.
In Canadian and U.S. border communities that have already suffered a plunge in road trippers, with many blaming Trump’s tariffs and incendiary rhetoric, higher fuel prices are an added irritant that could push some businesses over the edge. So will North America still hit the road this driving season — or will weakened demand and higher costs keep people closer to home?
“(Higher gas prices) just make it worse,” said Mayor Mary Lou Seward, from Blaine, Washington, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen. “Everybody’s struggling… I’m not having to ask, ‘Can I drive my car or buy my medications? … But there are people that have to make that decision.”
Seward has already seen car-travel traffic from Canada to Blaine plummet over the past year and her border town is far from alone. Overall, 30.9 per cent fewer Canadian automobiles visited the U.S. last year compared to 2024 and the trend continues. New data from Statistics Canada show that in February 2026 car trips to the U.S. fell 12.3 per cent to 1.2 million, and the majority, 71 per cent, were day trips.
Polling by Leger shows that the political climate and tensions with Washington were why 61 per cent of Canadians were less likely to travel to the U.S. last year. By early March 2026, just one week into the Iran conflict, that number had risen to 67 per cent.
“The overwhelming drive right now … is that pushback toward the Trump administration,” said Laurie Trautman, director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University in Bellingham, who conducts regular polling at the border.
American visits to Canada last year, meanwhile, fell by 3 per cent, with a nearly 5 per cent drop in car arrivals, according to Statistics Canada. But this year, the trend has reversed, with U.S.-resident cross-border travel into Canada up by more than 6 per cent in February.
Staff at tourism offices on both sides of the border agree that travel to border-area America was largely being hurt by Trump’s trade war. The “market has softened” because of tariff uncertainty and economic anxiety, and he noted that people tend to cut back on discretionary spending like tourism first, said Gordon Orr, the CEO of Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island. Tourism attractions in the Niagara area saw a 10-12 per cent drop between 2024 and 2025 owing to lighter Canadian traffic, said Destination Niagara USA President and CEO John Percy.
