Gavin,

A letter to the Governor, from a Canadian.

Ben Beveridge
Proconsul

Governor Gavin Newsom
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA
United States of America

April 15, 2025

Gavin,

This letter is not a protest. It’s a declaration of consequence.

Your recent campaign inviting Canadians to vacation in California is not just ill-timed… it’s fundamentally disconnected from the world as it stands.

You speak of shared values. Of golden coasts and open arms. Of political turbulence in Washington as though it were merely a cloud over an otherwise clear sky.

But you know better. You know what’s happening is not a passing storm. It’s structural. Strategic. It’s state-sponsored subjugation masquerading as policy. And you — whether by silence, calculation, or complicity — have allowed your office to become a billboard for a nation in freefall.

Let me be clear.

Canada is not boycotting California because of branding. We are boycotting because your nation is no longer safe. Your borders no longer respect sovereignty. Your agencies no longer honour law. Your leadership no longer defends principle.

A Canadian was detained in your state, for paperwork. Eleven days. No charge. No apology. And you offered no shield. No stand. No sentence.

You do not control ICE. You do not control DHS. You do not control the machinery of abduction and exile now operating with impunity within your borders.

And yet you invite us in… as tourists. As prey.

To spend, to smile, to share in the spectacle. While knowing full well that at any moment, a Canadian visitor can be snatched, disappeared, and deported to a foreign prison without trial, because they wrote the wrong sentence, or followed the wrong page.

You call that a vacation?

You have misread this moment, Governor. Canadians are not confused. We are not reactive. We are resolute.

We are not coming.

Not while your president wages economic war against us. Not while your border treats us like threats. Not while your state remains a silent participant in a federal machine that violates our citizens with indifference.

California is not the enemy. But it is not exempt. You are not exempt. Not until you act.

If you want Canadian tourists, you must first guarantee Canadian safety. And that requires more than invitations. It requires infrastructure. Policy. Protection. Sovereignty.

Until then, our money stays home. Our families stay home. Our loyalty stays with those who’ve earned it.

You’ve lost our trust, Governor.

Now earn it back, if you dare. If you can.

B

—
Ben Beveridge
Proconsul
ben@proconsul.ca
Canada