The front page of your Jan. 5 edition pointed out that Visit Florida sees the decline in Canadian visitors as problematic. They were down 15% in the first nine months of 2025, and it’s time for the Sunshine State to find out why.
Yes, there have been tensions between the U.S. and Canada, but there is more to this problem than the Trump desire to annex Canada as the 51st state or the trade war that has erupted.
The economy is an issue that few Floridians think about when considering why fewer Canadians are not here. When it costs more in Florida than in Montreal for the same bottle of Florida orange juice, it makes you wonder (disregarding that the Canadian dollar only buys about 68 cents U.S.) That affects both casual tourists and us “snowbirds.”
And now, folks in Tallahassee suggest that homesteaded Florida residents should be exempt from property taxes. How do you think I would feel, as an already overtaxed property owner, if my neighbor, now paying only 25% of what I pay in local taxes for the same condo, were to have her tax eliminated? And who would be called upon to pick up the millions lost?
Having been a part-time Floridian from Canada for some 25 years, it will be easier to just sell and go elsewhere than to pay onerous property taxes — and I believe many others feel the same way.
Sidney Margles, Deerfield Beach and Montreal
The Putin approach
Isn’t what Trump just did in Venezuela similar to what Putin did in Ukraine?
Putin wants another Soviet Union by taking over all the former countries that were once part of it. It will include all those countries and maybe other countries in Europe.
Trump is taking over Venezuela. He wants Canada to be part of the U.S., as well as Greenland. He apparently wants to be the Dictator of the Americas.
Harry Hoffer, Boynton Beach
Right versus wrong
A motorcade on FDR Drive leaves a Manhattan federal court where Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was arraigned Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Given Trump’s Teflon coating, why doesn’t he do this: Pardon Maduro as long as he agrees to go to Turkey and stay there. There’s no more Venezuela, but one can live really well in Istanbul, and it’s a lot better than a Brooklyn jail cell.
In return, a new Trump Istanbul hotel gets built. He’s done worse. And what a distraction from the mess he’s created!
By the way, discussing all of Trump’s changes to America and the world, why is there so little mention of right and wrong?
As I see it, to name just a few, is it right or wrong to loosen air pollution standards (wrong); allow more offshore drilling (wrong); support Israel in the mass, unnecessary killings of Palestinian civilians (wrong); let Ukraine lose the war with Russia (wrong) or abuse the “pardon power” by applying it to known lawbreakers?
The last one is wrong, in spades.
Yes, there’s usually right and wrong on both sides. But good government means choosing which is the “righter” path.
I’ve made my choices. I hope the rest of the country has the courage to make theirs.
Michael Peskoe, Fort Lauderdale
The wrong priorities
It is so nice to see that we have the financial resourses to invade and take over Venezuela, but not the resourses to extend the Affordable Care Act to millions of Americans in need of health care.
Stacie M. Kiner, Hypoluxo
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