The Blue Jays are in Seattle. But the Canadians, not as much.

SEATTLE — It is a rite of summer in Seattle, as sure as Seafair and salmon season — when the Toronto Blue Jays come to town, their Canadian fans will follow.

Summer after summer, they have come, from Saskatoon, Edmonton, Victoria; converging on downtown, ambling along the waterfront, drowning out Mariners fans and turning T-Mobile Park into a de facto home game for Canada’s lone Major League Baseball team.

“They may look like the road team,” the Blue Jays broadcast team said two years ago, “but it’ll feel like they’re the home team, as is always the case when the Blue Jays come to Seattle.”

But it is no longer always the case.

As President Donald Trump has opened a bitter feud with Canada — hamstringing its economy with tariffs and threatening, incessantly, to turn it into the 51st state — something as innocent as a night at the ballpark has been caught up in the cultural and political battles roiling both nations.

Travis and Lala Grant have come from Vancouver to see the Blue Jays in Seattle every year for at least a decade. They came this year, too … grudgingly.

They bought tickets to the series last October, as soon as they went on sale. They’ve been trying to sell them since. “I couldn’t give ’em away, nobody wanted them,” Travis said.

They typically come to Washington once a month or so, to go shopping or have lunch in Bellingham, Lala said. But they haven’t come since November.

“I don’t support what he’s doing,” Travis said. “He’s an idiot; he should not be president.”

So why did they come? “I’m not blowing 700 bucks on tickets,” he said.

A man outside the stadium holding an “I need tickets” sign (universal code for “I’m selling tickets”) said business was “terrible.”

“It’s slow, it’s slow,” he said.

Certainly, there were thousands of Blue Jays fans at Friday night’s game, the opener of a three-game series. But they did not dominate. Mariners jerseys in the crowd outnumbered Jays and Maple Leafs. The chants of “Let’s go, Blue Jays,” once ubiquitous when Toronto was in town, were scant.

Last year’s three-day homestand against the Blue Jays averaged 35,880 in T-Mobile Park over July 4 weekend. On Friday night’s series opener, 31,564 people showed up.

“Not quite as full as it has been in the past, and understandably so,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said, after his team won 6-3 Friday. “But we love every single one who comes down here.”

The crowd cheered when Addison Barger opened the scoring for Toronto with a double in the first. They cheered louder when Jorge Polanco knocked in the Mariners’ first run in the third. They roared when the Mariners loaded the bases in the eighth, before the home team squandered away the potential rally.

Jane and Darren Desrochers came from Victoria, on the Victoria Clipper passenger ferry, with their two kids. They had debated whether to travel.

Darren, a teacher, was nervous about the border and how they might be treated here — both were fine.

“Some of it was financial, too,” said Jane, an engineer. “We don’t want to spend our money in the States. Obviously, it wasn’t decisive. I felt like we had a duty to represent Canada and Canada’s team.”

They said the ferry was only two-thirds full. Other folks they talked to said their friends had bailed, not wanting to come to the U.S.

Their ferry wasn’t the only one sailing with empty seats.

Mark Collins, CEO of the Victoria Clipper, said their international trips have been running around 35% below normal all year, even as their Seattle whale watching trips have been up about 20% from last year.

“It’s the geopolitical situation, people are not inclined to travel southbound,” Collins said. “Canadians would say, at first, it was a reaction to insulting comments or things like that, but now we’re seeing it’s border concerns. Stricter enforcement at the border has caused people to think about it.”

An Irish green card holder and legal permanent resident was held in immigration prison in Tacoma for nearly two weeks, before being released Wednesday. In March, a British tourist was held in the same prison for nearly three weeks.

Another private ferry service, running between Port Angeles and Victoria, has scrapped many of its June sailings because reservations are so far behind normal.

On land, too, border crossings have plunged, according to data compiled by the Whatcom Council of Governments. Every month since Trump took office, fewer Canadian cars than last year have crossed from British Columbia into Whatcom County — 29% fewer with B.C. plates in February, 43% fewer in March and a whopping 51% fewer last month.

Chris Anderson, the Pike Street Drummer, is a professional busker, setting up his drum kit outside Pike Place Market in the mornings and outside Mariners games in the evenings.

“We set our clock to when Canada comes to town,” Anderson said. But on Friday morning, he scoped the scene at Pike Place and didn’t even set up. “I didn’t see enough Canadians. You can definitely tell the difference, you can definitely tell something’s up.”

Seattle businesses have rolled out the metaphorical red carpet for Blue Jays fans, trying to counter the hostility coming from D.C. with local hospitality.

A coalition of downtown restaurants and hotels is accepting Canadian dollars at par from anyone with a Canadian ID, essentially offering a 30% discount to Canadians.

“We regret how our federal government is treating you,” the group, Open Arms for Canada, wrote on its website, announcing the promotion. “We wish we could change what happens in the other Washington.”

But a local website is not quite the bully pulpit of the White House.

“Truly, we wouldn’t have come if we hadn’t booked in November,” said Crystal Edgington, who came from Edmonton with 11 family members. They all came for her dad, for whom the trip was both a dream and, likely, once in a lifetime.

“If we wait until the tensions ease, who knows how long that will be?” said Barb Hughes, Edgington’s sister.

Another family trip: The Nyal sisters, Norma, Joyce, Karen, Sharon and Bev, ages 62 through 73. Four of the sisters live in or near Edmonton. They flew from there to Osoyoos, B.C., to pick up the fifth, then drove the last six hours to Seattle. The trip is to honor their sixth sister, who recently died.

It was their first time in Seattle.

“We were a little concerned about how people would be and act,” said Bev. “But they were wonderful.”

“The people have been fabulous,” Joyce added.

“Oh my God, yes,” Norma jumped in. “Everybody’s saying ‘We’re sorry. We like your country.'”

____