For Canadians who took a chance this past winter and ventured south to the southern United States, winter may not have felt so bad. Many had the opportunity to get vaccinated sooner than if they’d stayed in Canada; they got to enjoy beautiful weather, as usual; and they may have appreciated local governors refusing to lock down their economies, as was the case in Florida.

Of course, the downsides were significant: more than 2.3 million people in Florida contracted COVID-19, and more than 37,000 of them died.

Nonetheless, a new survey of Canadian snowbirds shows 91 percent of respondents plan to travel south this coming winter, despite lingering uncertainty over border controls, America’s stagnating vaccination numbers and an impending fourth wave of the deadly virus. Even if these snowbirds are vaccinated, travel won’t be business as usual.

On today’s episode of The CJN Daily podcast, host Ellin Bessner is joined by Evan Rachkovsky, director of communications for the Canadian Snowbird Association, a lobby group of about 100,000 travellers. Rachkovsky addresses common questions about COVID positivity rates in Florida, estimates of border openings and how to register vaccines received stateside with Canadian health authorities.

Listen and subscribe above.

What we talked about:

• Visit the Canadian Snowbird Association’s website at snowbirds.org
• Read about the proposed U.S. Senate bill that could allow Canadian snowbirds to stay south for longer at thestar.com
• Find details about Rabbi Bulka’s Shloshim tribute at eventbrite.ca

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.