SEATTLE — Michele Dyck and her son, Ryan, made the 90-minute drive down from Langley, B.C. to Seattle. With the exception of the pandemic, it’s a pilgrimage they’ve made every year since 2018, alongside thousands of Canadians living on the West Coast who flood T-Mobile Park to see the Toronto Blue Jays as an annual tradition.
Most years, that influx of Jays fans meant waiting at the border for up to four hours. But this isn’t most years, as evidenced by tariffs, trade wars and 51st-state talk. So when Michele and Ryan flashed their Nexus cards from their car and coasted into Washington state on the way to Friday’s game, the process took just 15 minutes.
“We don’t know anybody that’s really come down that usually comes,” Michele said. “Because they don’t want to come for four years.”
With tensions heightened between the United States and Canada since the return of President Donald Trump to office, some Blue Jays fans still made the trek to Seattle. But others have chosen to stay home, and the difference has been noticeable.
“We definitely felt the support,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after the series opener. “You know, you hear the ‘Let’s go Blue Jays,’ and you see the people behind our dugout and things like that. Not quite as full as it has been in the past, and understandably so. But we love every single one that comes down here.”
Before the series opener, there was passionate applause after the Canadian national anthem. During the singing of Take Me Out to the Ball Game for the seventh-inning stretch, visiting fans tried to drown out the home team with a chant of “Blue Jays!”
Yet, as Schneider noted, it wasn’t quite the same. During batting practice on Friday, sections of the stadium that were packed with Blue Jays fans last season housed only small patches of blue jerseys.
“It wouldn’t have felt right to be there,” said Rod Mickleburgh, a longtime Blue Jays fan from Vancouver who chose to skip one of his favourite yearly trips.
It’s part of a clear trend, as Canadians have found various ways to express their displeasure about the American administration’s new policies, including booing the playing of the U.S. national anthem before sporting events. They’ve also taken to making their voice heard with their wallets. Canadian trips to the U.S. have decreased this year, with overall air, pedestrian and vehicle crossings down over 5 percent in February and March.
Some who nevertheless made the trip to Seattle did so despite conflicting feelings, though the Dycks didn’t hesitate to book their tickets. They have gone to Blue Jays spring training contests in Florida and Toronto’s road games in Los Angeles and Anaheim, but the Seattle series is special. Most years, Michele said, it feels like a Blue Jays home game. The moment the Jays’ schedule was released, the mother and son duo circled the date. This year’s trip was about cheering on the Blue Jays and their home country.
“We’re representing, right?” Michele said. “They’re our team and we’re representing Canada.”
The decision didn’t come as easily for Denis and Veronica Courchene, from Vancouver Island, B.C. Last year, the couple took their granddaughter, Abbey, to the Seattle series for the first time. She’s a massive Blue Jays fan — her favourite player is George Springer. She ran down to the field to catch a glimpse of Toronto’s batting practice and warming relief pitchers before the games. While the July heat was draining last year, the trip was enjoyable enough to schedule an encore this year. They booked it in December, before the tariffs and trade war.
Prior to Friday’s series opener, Veronica Courchene said a T-Mobile Park usher cleaning seats shuffled over to her and apologized for “the situation.” The sentiment was appreciated, though Courchene admitted that if she were traveling on her own, she would’ve cancelled the trip. But she had already purchased the ferry tickets and the hotel was pre-paid. And, most importantly, she and her husband didn’t want to disappoint their granddaughter.
“After this is over,” Courchene said, “I don’t think I’ll come back until things change or until I’m dead. I hope, I don’t see that happening. Maybe if we all live long enough to see the end of his term.”
Denis and Veronica Courchene, from Vancouver Island, B.C, with their granddaughter, Abbey. (Mitch Bannon / The Athletic)
Some fans, though, weren’t bothered by cross-border politics, jumping at the rare chance to see the Blue Jays in person. Herb Wassen from Langley, B.C., started watching more Blue Jays baseball after he retired three years ago. Friday’s game marked his first trip to T-Mobile, making the drive down with friends and family. For him, there was no hesitation.
“We got our own problems in Canada,” Wassen said. “We don’t have to worry about what’s going on down here.”
The Seattle series is the only opportunity each year for West Coast Blue Jays fans to see their team live. Toronto is the lone MLB team in Canada and the franchise embraces a fan base that spans from coast to coast. So, fans like Mickleburgh have driven down for decades to catch the Blue Jays in Seattle. His trips date back to when the Mariners played at the Kingdome and long before other Canadians picked up the pilgrimage.
He watched Fred McGriff’s Blue Jays in the 1980s. He saw Ichiro Suzuki torment his team in the early 2000s. And he was there when Felix Hernández stood on the top step of the dugout to hush the Canadian crowd.
While the annual Canadian excursion picked up popularity with the Blue Jays’ surging teams of the mid-2010s, Mickleburgh estimates he’s been regularly attending Jays games in Seattle for 25 years. The trip became so routine that he and his wife befriended the owner of the rental house they use in Seattle. This year, she offered the house for this weekend at no charge. Mickleburgh still stayed home.
“I just didn’t want to spend any money in the States,” Mickleburgh said. “It’s got nothing to do with Seattle or Washington or Americans, not all of them voted for Trump. But you know, if their president is going to insult Canada like this, I mean, why am I there?”
Decades of trips created ballpark traditions for Mickleburgh. He’s a regular at the Salt and Straw ice cream stand outside section 152 and Ivar’s seafood concessions at T-Mobile Park. The decision to cancel that normalcy was a slow build. He made the trip down to Seattle during Trump’s first term in office, but the “Governor Trudeau” quips and potential economic implications of tariffs on Canada changed things.
Leading up to the weekend series, a sense of conflict seemed to permeate the online discourse among Blue Jays fans, who were weighing their choice. Mickleburgh understands why many still came out. But, even as he contemplated and delayed his final decision, Mickleburgh knew in his heart he couldn’t go.
Instead of watching the Blue Jays’ 6-3 win over the Mariners on Friday, Mickleburgh went out for dinner with his wife. Most weeks, that’s a lovely Friday evening. This week, it was painful.
“It’s not really a sacrifice if it doesn’t hurt,” Mickleburgh said. “Right?”
(Top photo of Michele and Ryan Dyck at Friday’s series opener: Mitch Bannon / The Athletic)