After viral ‘O Canada’ moment, Buffalo tries to woo Canadian tourists

Cast your memory back a couple weeks ago, before the Montreal Canadiens were facing the Buffalo Sabres in the second round of the NHL playoffs and Montreal eateries were renaming their “Buffalo Wings” with reckless abandon. Way back then, on April 28, Buffalo fans sang “O Canada” at the top of their lungs after singer Cami Clune’s mic cut out before Game 5 of the team’s series against the Boston Bruins.

That moment, which went viral as a counterpoint to a long year of American antipathy, is now at the centre of an initiative aiming to entice Canadians — and hockey fans, in particular — to the Queen City.

A series of billboards have been erected in southern Ontario with the message “O Canada, We Meant Every Word. Buffalo.”

“It’s really about how welcoming we are, that we truly appreciate our friendship with Canadians, and just showing our overall City of Good Neighbors, our overall good will, and really just rolling out the welcome mat for those fans that are coming in from Canada,” Visit Buffalo CEO Patrick Kaler told WIVB News 4 Buffalo.

The campaign’s focus on Ontario is presumably a reflection of Buffalo’s proximity to that hockey-challenged province. The nearest playoff game if you live in Toronto will be Game 5 in Buffalo on Thursday; the nearest playoff game if you live in Montreal is Game 4 at the Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Visit Buffalo has also published “The Hockey Fan’s Guide to Buffalo,” which features recommendations for eating near the KeyBank Center. (Appealing as the options may be, nothing tastes sweeter than victory.)

Buffalo’s goodwill campaign comes as research continues to show that Canadians are avoiding the U.S. during Donald Trump’s second term as president.

A new study from the University of Toronto’s School of Cities uses cellphone data to identify a 42 per cent reduction in Canadian visits to U.S. metropolitan areas.

The UofT study identified an even larger reduction — 50.7 per cent — in Canadian visits to the Buffalo metropolitan area.

It may take more than a few billboards — even if they’re even larger than the Buffalo Sabres’ massive players — to reverse that trend.

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