As cross-border relations turn ugly, Alaskans and Yukoners work to stay friends

By Max Graham, Northern Journal March 3, 2025
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‘We like Canada the way it is’: For Alaska’s eastern neighbors, dual threats of tariffs and annexation still loom
Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, left, and Yukon Premiere Ranj Pillai pose for a photo during a meeting in Whitehorse last year. (Justin Kennedy/Government of Yukon)

President Donald Trump’s recent threats to start a trade war with Canada and to turn it into the 51st state of the U.S. have not landed well with the populace of the sovereign nation to Alaska’s east.

Canadian sports fans have hurled boos at the U.S. anthem at recent hockey and basketball games. Leaders of border towns like Windsor, Ontario, long-integrated with Detroit, have protested by pulling funds for cross-border bus service and event sponsorships.

But in the far north, the historically tight bond between Alaskans and Yukoners has remained intact amid the fraught federal politics — at least for now.

If anything, the recent belligerence at the national level has inspired local pleas for pacifism. Alaska border-town officials have penned effusive letters to their Canadian counterparts, reinforcing commitments to traditions that have long united people on both sides of the remote, 1,500-mile border.

“This whole business with Trump and the tariffs and potential annexation that he’s throwing out there — it has upset a lot of Canadians. But we also recognize that our friends and family and neighbors across the border, we can’t paint them with that same paint brush,” said Diane Strand, mayor of Haines Junction, a small Yukon Territory outpost about a three-hour drive north of the larger-but-still-tiny Southeast Alaska town of Haines.

Strand recently received a letter from Haines’ mayor, Tom Morphet, saying that “as northerners, we sometimes have as much in common with our Canadian neighbors as we do with our own countrymen in the southern latitudes.”

Higher-level elected officials in Alaska and the Yukon territory also appear committed to maintaining a cordial relationship — even as Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican and longtime Trump ally, remains quiet on the president’s rift-provoking ideas.

Jeff Turner, a spokesperson for Dunleavy, described the governor’s relationship with Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai as “productive and positive.” Dunleavy and Pillai spoke by phone earlier this month about “shared priorities,” including the potential effects of tariffs on both Alaskans and Canadians, according to Laura Seeley, a spokesperson for Pillai.

But Turner would not say whether Dunleavy supports Trump’s tariff proposal, which Pillai has called a “blatant attack” on Canada. Nor would Turner say whether Dunleavy supports Trump’s idea to annex Canada.

Pillai also discussed tariffs during a recent trip to Washington, D.C., where he met with Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III, Seeley said in an email.

“The Yukon and Alaska have a long-standing relationship built on mutual respect, trade, and shared challenges,” wrote Seeley. “That foundation remains strong, regardless of political shifts at the national level.”

Seeley added: “On the question of annexation, Canadians have been clear that is not going to happen.”

In a phone interview this week, Morphet, the Haines mayor, said he has worried that President Trump’s rhetoric about annexation and tariffs could make Canadians more hesitant to visit Haines, and he fears the town could see a drop in tourism as a result.

Strand, the Haines Junction mayor, said she has heard some constituents say they are now leery of traveling farther from town to the Alaska cities of Anchorage and Fairbanks — where they fear they’d no longer feel welcomed. But they’re still open to going to the small, nearby towns of Haines and Skagway where they know more people, Strand added.

The Haines Community Marching Band, featuring Tom Morphet, who has since been elected the town’s mayor, on trumpet, serenades a visitor from the Yukon Territory in November 2021. (Max Graham)

Efforts to maintain the cross-border bond could face a test at the upcoming Kluane Chilkat International Bike Relay, an annual bike race in June that runs from Haines Junction to Haines.

A Haines member of the relay’s board, a mix of Canadians and Americans, described some “animosity” at a recent meeting, according to KHNS, Haines’ public radio station.

But event planners told Northern Journal that they’re fully committed to holding the race in spite of the deteriorating national relations.

“We just want people to have a good time,” said Monika Kozlerova, a Whitehorse resident who coordinates the event. “We are trying to stay away from any politics.”

Another yearly event that brings together hundreds of people from both Alaska and the Yukon, the Buckwheat International Ski Classic, is also still expected to happen, according to event organizers.

That race, organized by a group mostly of Alaskans, is held on the Canadian side of White Pass, which is 45 minutes by car from the Southeast Alaska town of Skagway.

Costume-clad finishers eat burgers in a snow castle at the finish of the annual Buckwheat Ski Classic in White Pass last year. (Nathaniel Herz/Northern Journal)

“I’ve heard nothing but interest in the Buckwheat,” said Jon Hillis, a Skagway resident who helps plan the race, which is scheduled for March 15. “I think we’re relatively on pace in sign-ups. So, I don’t see a lot of impact so far.”

Hillis added, though, that Trump’s proposed 25% tariffs on Canadian goods — initially set to start Feb. 1 but now delayed until March 4 — could affect not only Yukoners but also people from Skagway.

Many Skagway residents, who have only small stores in town, frequently drive two hours north to shop at big box stores in Whitehorse.

“If those tariffs came into place, they would hurt a lot. I go up to Whitehorse at least monthly,” said Hillis, who buys supplies for his cleaning business there. “We’re all kind of holding our breath.”
Skagway’s elected officials last week voted to send a letter to Alaska’s congressional delegation voicing concerns about Trump’s tariff proposal. They also signed a letter to Pillai, the Yukon premier, saying that “economic lifelines” between Skagway and the Yukon “must not be hindered by policies that fail to recognize our unique cross-border relationship.
”Those words echoed Morphet’s letter to Strand, the Haines Junction mayor, and a nearly identical one from Morphet to the mayor of Whitehorse. Both of those letters affirmed that Haines “stands steadfast for continued warm and peaceful relations with our Canadian neighbors and family members, in perpetuity.”
Strand, in a phone interview this week, said she had drafted but not yet sent a response to Morphet. It notes, she said, that all the camaraderie is great, but urges Haines officials to go a step further and take a public stance in defense of Canada’s nationhood.
Morphet signaled support for that idea. “I think I can speak for most people in this town, if not all, that we’re not interested in invading Canada,” he said. “We like Canada the way it is. We like that they have great ice rinks. We like that they have great parks.”Morphet also gave shout-outs to the country’s health care system and the veterinarians, winter apparel shops and ice-skate sharpeners of the Yukon — all of which have, at one point or another, served the Alaskans of Haines and Skagway.Instead of making Canada a state, then, might Morphet want his town to become a part of Canada?“I have more than a few friends who wouldn’t mind that,” said the mayor.

Nathaniel Herz welcomes tips at na*****@gm***.com or (907) 793-0312. This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Herz. You can subscribe by clicking on this link.