Many Manitobans appeared to skip U.S. road trips over the summer as the number of southbound travellers hit at least a 30-year low — excluding COVID-19 pandemic years — at a major border crossing south of Winnipeg.

The Pembina, N.D., port of entry recorded 93,372 personal vehicle passengers in July and August, a 42 per cent drop from the same period in 2024, based on U.S. Department of Transportation figures that date back to 1996.

“I noticed it’s the first time in many years more Americans were coming up than Canadians were going down,” University of Manitoba Prof. Lori Wilkinson, the Canada Research Chair in Migration Futures, said of wider cross-border travel data.

“The continued threats from the American administration about annexing us have really bothered people. And the tariffs.

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