To open its national newscast — The National — last Thursday, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation showed video of big trucks crossing the Ambassador Bridge that connects Detroit, Michigan, United States of America with Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
With automotive parts constantly crisscrossing borders during vehicle production, it is a major chokepoint in President Donald Trump’s trade war of tariffs against Canada and other nations. All sides might suffer, Trump reckons, but he will show everyone who’s boss.
“Canada has been ripping us off for years,” Trump said last week. “They’re not going to be ripping us off anymore.” Among other reckless accusations, Trump blamed Canada for allowing the killer drug fentanyl to be smuggled into the U.S.
After announcing 25% taxes on imports from Canada and Mexico last week, Trump suddenly paused the tariffs until April 2 due to pressure from the Detroit Three of the auto industry. “It would have hurt the American car companies if I did that” (tariff), Trump said.
The next day, CBC’s local newscast — CBC News Windsor on CBET Channel 9 — ventured over to the American side of the Detroit River to see whether people around the Motor City felt as chagrined as Canadians about this economic warfare.
One voice was Michael Taylor, mayor of Sterling Heights, a Macomb County suburb heavily dependent on the auto industry. He told the Canadian interviewer that Trump won the state’s 15 electoral votes by concealing his real aims while running against Kamala Harris for president.
“Donald Trump was here campaigning several times, maybe eight, 10, 12 times or more,” Taylor said. “There was no discussion about the Canadian border, no discussion about fentanyl coming in. There was really little discussion about the Canadian companies taking advantage of us. So I don’t know where this came from.”
Although the emotion is not yet widespread among Americans, Taylor expressed shame over Trump’s economic attacks against a close neighbor and ally.
“I’m less proud of my country than at any time in my life,” Taylor said. “So, when I watch the Canadians take the Tennessee whiskey off the shelf, I’m kind of like ‘Yeah, good for you, good for you. Stick it right back to him. Make it hurt.’”
Justin Trudeau — about to step down as Canada’s prime minister — told the media in Ottawa last week, “The excuse that [Trump] is giving for those tariffs of fentanyl is completely bogus, completely unjustified, completely false. What he wants to see is a total collapse of the Canadian economy because that’ll make it easier to annex us.”
Trump’s tariff pressure tactic is but one of his ugly American power moves that have domestically rattled the stock markets and internationally shocked nations (like Ukraine and those in NATO) who were once confident in their economic and military alliances with the U.S.
But while Trump never discussed this stuff while campaigning in Michigan, he said a lot about the car business. On an October visit to the Detroit Economic Club, Trump said he was not impressed by repeated reports over the years of a Detroit renaissance.
“It’s coming around,” Trump said of Detroit, “and never really got there.”
He warned that things would worsen if Harris was elected.
“Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president,” Trump told the business crowd. “You’re going to have a mess on your hands.”
But don’t worry, Trump assured them. He would fix it.
“I’m telling you right now, standing here in the center of this once-great city, that, by the end of my term, the entire world will be talking about the Michigan miracle and the stunning rebirth of Detroit,” Trump said.
So far, the only “rebirth” has been that of friction between two neighbor nations who have been at peace since the War of 1812. One of Trump’s many demagogic gifts is the ability to turn friends against one another. A byproduct of this dispute is animosity of some Canadians toward Wayne Gretzky, a national icon and the greatest hockey player of his generation. (He retired in 1999.)
While insulting Canada by threatening to make it the 51st United State, Trump suggested his good friend, Gretzky, might become the governor. Gretzky — a celebrity who likes to be around celebrities — attended two of Trump’s recent celebrations and has been seen wearing a MAGA hat.
And so the Canadian backlash against Trump has splashed onto the reputation of Gretzky, who has been lying low and not commenting about economic pressure against his home and native land. People who have talked with him — including Ontario Premier Doug Ford — report Gretzky to be deeply disturbed.
“I talked to Wayne the other day and he was so choked up talking to me,” Ford told The New York Times. “He is a patriot. He loves Canada . . . So, you know, folks, give the guy a break.”
Another irony of the current mess involves Gretzky’s legacy. His 894 regular-season goals are the most in the history of the National Hockey League. However, Russian native Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals may soon break it. As of Sunday, Ovechkin was 10 short of Gretzky’s mark.
Often in sports, when a major record is about to fall, the old record holder follows the new guy’s path from city to city for a few games until it happens. This may be awkward for Gretzky, but it could be worse. Only one of Washington’s remaining games is in Canada, on March 25 at Winnipeg.
How strange it would be for him to be booed in Manitoba while a Russian eclipses his record. Next visit to Detroit, Gretzky can behold the brand new “Gordie Howe International Bridge” just west of downtown, built to connect the U.S. and Canada, to encourage trade and to bring people together.
