The Detroit\u2013Windsor, Ontario region was poised for an economic and psychic boost courtesy of the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge this summer. Travelers would save time transiting the border, tolls would be cheaper, and even cyclists and pedestrians could make the trip.<\/p>\n
But the White House had so poisoned the atmosphere surrounding the bridge\u2014demanding and securing new concessions on revenues, even though Canada fronted all the costs\u2014that Michigan and Ontario ended up holding separate celebrations. Ontario Premier Doug Ford headlined the Canadian ribbon-cutting, featuring various provincial and national dignitaries and members of Gordie Howe\u2019s family. Michiganders had Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) cruising across the span a couple of days later in a Michigan-made Mustang convertible.<\/p>\n
More from Gabrielle Gurley<\/a><\/p>\n Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s unpopular deal, though it got the bridge open, created a major headache for his government. And this split screen ended up being another chaotic prelude to a new phase of the U.S.-Canada relationship, worthy of\u2014to riff off Doug Ford\u2014a lifetime\u2019s worth of Saturday Night Live skits. During this midterm campaign season, Democratic and Republican candidates will now literally have to decide which side of the border they\u2019re on\u2014now that Canada\u2019s \u201cdollar for dollar\u201d retaliatory tariffs<\/a> are in effect.<\/p>\n After sidelining the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)\u2014Canada and Mexico had hoped for a renewed 16-year deal, but had to settle for annual reviews until the trade agreement expires in ten years\u2014the White House surfaced a new irritant, the century-old Section 338 tariffs. Under this zombie tariff scheme, the president was able to levy<\/a> a 50 percent duty on Canadian dairy products, alcoholic beverages, and other baskets of commodities that \u201cdiscriminate\u201d against American goods.<\/p>\n Dollar-for-dollar tariffs match the duties that the Trump administration has imposed on Canadian goods and will affect about $28 billion in imports.<\/p>\n Negotiations aimed at avoiding the tariffs led to President Trump proclaiming that \u201ca deal\u201d was imminent. But \u201ca deal\u201d usually means \u201cno deal,\u201d where the White House is concerned. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick joined the American negotiators coming back to the table, this time with additional demands: a new tariff rate on certain trucks, veto power over Canada\u2019s free-trade deals with other countries, eliminating the requirement that streaming companies commit 15 percent of Canadian earnings to promoting Canadian streaming content, and stripping French-language labeling from U.S.-bound Canadian products.<\/p>\n The last demand was made while three by-election campaigns were in progress. Fresh off the capitulation on the Gordie Howe International Bridge, Carney had little choice but to drop out of what had passed for negotiations. He didn\u2019t go quietly. \u201cThe attitude of the United States in these discussions and subsequent ones is that the core Canadian industries would be subsidiaries of the United States industries or would be gradually wound down in Canada,\u201d Carney said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to accept those terms.\u201d<\/p>\n Carney\u2019s Liberal Party would ultimately win all three seats and maintain its majority in Parliament, including one in Quebec where a longtime Conservative Party lawmaker lost. If the American trade team intended to make headway on their demands and help Conservative Party candidates by treating Canada like a unilingual vassal state, it didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n As the temperature of the trade war rises from simmering to boiling, the situation has devolved into finger-pointing, new geographic designations, body-shaming insults, Al slop, and meme generation that would wear out a middle-school principal, much less the leader of a sovereign nation. The meme-generating administration may be amusing themselves, but they\u2019ve made life practically impossible for Republicans trying to win re-election or even gain offices, particularly in the northern border states where the trade war is manifestly unpopular.<\/p>\n Much of this fury has been concentrated in Michigan, where tariffs have cost the state about $23 billion ($5,619 per household) since 2025, according to a National Taxpayers Union Foundation Tariffs Tracker analysis<\/a>. That\u2019s the third-highest amount in the country, behind only California and Texas.<\/p>\n Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (who is running for governor to replace Whitmer, who is term-limited) have pummeled their Republican opponents. \u201cIf you\u2019re starting a trade war with Canada, it\u2019s because you\u2019re the asshole,\u201d El-Sayed said<\/a> Monday. He\u2019s criticized Rep. Mike Rogers, his Republican challenger, for backing Trump, and called the trade war with Canada \u201ca war on Michigan because we have to pay the price every day for goods that shouldn\u2019t cost as much as they do.\u201d Rogers has supported<\/a> using the Gordie Howe Bridge as a bargaining chip in the trade disputes.<\/p>\n Benson, like El-Sayed, regularly lauds the historic friendship with Canada. She calls the tariffs the \u201cJohn James tax,\u201d so named for her opponent in the governor\u2019s race, Rep. John James, who represents Michigan\u2019s Tenth Congressional District. There\u2019s no real way for a Republican like James to justify this month\u2019s antics, so he hasn\u2019t tried. \u201cWe need the negotiators to go back to the table, stop acting like children, and negotiate a fair, mutually beneficial reciprocal deal,\u201d James said<\/a> last week. The crisis facing Republican candidates, however, is that even offering up critiques of the administration\u2019s conduct, however reasoned and on point, fails to help them.<\/p>\n Vice President JD Vance jetted into Michigan to stump for Rogers and James, fresh off a trek to Maine. The vice president first appeared in Brewer, Maine, south of Bangor, and had quite a bit to say about cross-border trade, explaining<\/a> that \u201cwhat we\u2019re trying to do here is just make sure that Maine actually gets a fair deal.\u201d<\/p>\n He compared Canada to China, a tactic that the White House uses in its quest to demonize Canada with American audiences who fail to understand why a historic ally has been labeled a political and economic rival. At one point, Vance held forth for three minutes<\/a> on Maine\u2019s trade with Canada. \u201cIf you look at the amount of tariffs that have been applied not just on Maine but on a lot of our northern states that are doing cross-border trade with Canada, Canada and China have been the two worst countries when it comes to trade policy anywhere in the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He also slammed Canadian dairy policies that result in a 250 percent tariff on U.S. dairy products. Audience members applauded and cheered Vance, who never mentioned that that rate applies only when the U.S. exceeds its duty-free dairy quotas under the USMCA.<\/p>\n Maine candidates have pointed out inconsistencies. \u201cYou should not have to worry about a narcissist like Donald Trump that puts tariffs on one day, the next day takes them off, you have no idea what this man is doing, but he is hurting our state and our economy,\u201d Troy Jackson, Maine\u2019s Democratic candidate for governor, said<\/a> last week referring to the president\u2019s pause before implementing the 50 percent duty.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, once in front of a Michigan audience in Sterling Heights, a northern suburb of Detroit, Vance did not mention<\/a> Canada.<\/p>\n