The U.S.-Canada border has been closed for 477 days straight for non-essential travel. I wonder how many more birthdays and anniversaries I will miss with my relatives in Manitoba, how many more virtual family gatherings we will plan, and whether I will make it to a wedding in August in Quebec. As of this writing, COVID-19 is not under control in the central provinces, and there has been no movement to reopen the 5,525-mile stretch.
I also wonder what Canadian Jim is drinking. I was introduced to the smiling, quiet man while he was holding four empty growlers, which clanked together as he made a gesture mimicking the shaking of hands. At the time, I was sitting in the diminutive Revelation Ale Works taproom, in an old brick building in Hallock, Minnesota, alongside owner Ryan Evenson.
Hallock is a town of 921 people, located 24 miles by car from the U.S.-Canada border crossing. Canadian Jim was in the habit of visiting Revelation every few weeks to mule his beer back home to Manitoba. The northernmost brewery in the contiguous United States is, as Revelation describes itself, “ultra-rural.” There are more tractors than cars on the way into Hallock, but the brewery has been central to the identity of the town since its opening in 2017.
Has Canadian Jim found a substitute beverage in Winnipeg? I hope so. I think about which Revelation beer he is missing the most. The border closing—as President Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in March 2020—would not affect international trade. But if you ask Canadian Jim, he might say otherwise.