On the northeast fringe of Michigan’s Higher Peninsula, almost 1,100 individuals gathered in late June for the Worldwide Bridge Stroll throughout the lengthy span that hyperlinks two cities with the identical identify: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Each the solar and the emotions had been vibrant.
“We don’t prefer to say there’s a border there, as a result of we’re twin cities. We’re one household, the international locations of Canada and the USA,” Don Gerrie, mayor of the Michigan Sault (pronounced “Soo”), instructed the gang forward of the annual stroll.
He sported a black ballcap that he stated was given to him by his counterpart within the Ontario Sault. It featured flags from each nations with the phrases “Stronger Collectively” and “Allies and Pals.”
Canadians in cheerful patriotic apparel joined the bridge stroll, with maple leaves tagging their scarves and socks, shirts and shorts. People got here out in star-spangled T-shirts heralding the nation’s 250th birthday. However this vigorous custom is clouded by an more and more hostile relationship between the U.S. and Canada.
Site visitors over the bridge is approach down. And, in current weeks, President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs in retaliation for thick wildfire smoke wafting into the U.S. When his administration introduced a further 50% tariff on an array of Canadian merchandise, the White Home cited “Canada’s discriminatory therapy of American merchandise.” Then, utilizing a separate mechanism, it hit Canada with an additional 10% in tariffs.
Following stress from the Trump administration that delayed it, a brand new publicly owned bridge, the Gordie Howe, opened Monday between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. Canada hosted a Canada-only opening ceremony.
Trump wasn’t current for the bridge’s ribbon-cutting, though he used to cheer the undertaking. Up on the Sault bridge, there was no signal of the area’s congressional consultant on the celebration of worldwide friendship, though, throughout Trump’s first time period, Rep. Jack Bergman, a Republican, hailed relations with Canada.
In 2020, when Bergman was appointed to an interparliamentary group that gives a discussion board for alternate between Canadian and American legislators, he boasted of the Sault bridge as a degree the place “hundreds of thousands” cross yearly “to conduct enterprise, store, work and luxuriate in what every nation has to supply.”
But Bergman, who’s endorsed by Trump in an upcoming contested major, has been nearly silent on the brand new tariffs and their blowback in native communities, at the same time as he’s prodded to talk out by lots of his constituents. The one references to Sault Ste. Marie within the information gadgets on his web site throughout Trump’s second time period are a point out of an infrastructure undertaking and a February 2025 letter to the president a few purported member of a Venezuelan gang crossing the border.
As Canada responds to Trump’s strikes with emergency interventions and “purchase native” boosterism, considerably fewer Canadians are crossing the border for once-ordinary actions: purchasing, consuming, fueling automobiles, vacationing or visiting household and buddies.
The Sault space misplaced at the least $82.9 million final yr in native spending due to decreased crossings, based on an estimate from the Worldwide Bridge Administration, which manages the span: $62.7 million on the Michigan facet and $20.2 million on the Ontario facet.
There have been 270,000 fewer whole crossings final yr on the Sault Ste. Marie Worldwide Bridge — almost a 24% drop from 2024, exceeding related declines at Michigan’s different border crossings. Based mostly on the forex used to pay bridge fares and data from the Canadian prime minister’s workplace, the drop is basically as a result of lack of Canadian vacationers. Midway into 2026, auto visitors has lingered on the identical decrease quantity, based on the bridge director, whereas industrial visitors has fallen almost 15% additional.
Nationwide, the entire variety of Canadians coming back from the USA final yr dropped by greater than 25%, based on information from the Canadian authorities.
“What Canadians have carried out, after all, is that they’re boycotting the U.S.,” stated Michael Broadway, a geographer and professor emeritus at Northern Michigan College who has researched the journey traits (and joined the bridge stroll). Odd individuals can solely achieve this a lot about federal politics, he stated, “however what they’ll do is they’ll vote with their toes.”
Cengiz Yar/ProPublica
The Sault bridge spans the St. Mary’s River, simply west of the historic Soo Locks that function a hinge between two of the biggest Nice Lakes, Lake Superior and Lake Huron. Hovering excessive above the water to clear the thousand-foot freighters, it’s a important gateway for commerce. And it’s the one vehicular border crossing for tons of of miles in both route.
The drop in visitors reversed a post-pandemic uptick, stated Peter Petainen, bridge director and an Ontario Sault native. Simply because the numbers had been recovering, he instructed ProPublica, “the federal tariff dispute occurred and we’ve fallen off.”
Others famous that the flip in how the U.S. approaches noncitizens might have additionally chilled journey. Tales of Canadians detained within the U.S. are recurring headlines up north. And the Canadian greenback additionally doesn’t go so far as it as soon as did within the U.S.
Altogether, it’s an issue for Michigan’s rural Higher Peninsula — and likewise for the publicly owned bridge, which is dependent upon tolls for upkeep and operations. Because the bridge authority put it in its five-year plan, issued in December: “Border challenges negatively affecting bridge visitors, commerce and tourism might considerably cut back bridge income or enhance expenditures past operational sustainability.”
Wilda Hopper, co-owner of Hen’s Eye Outfitters within the Michigan Sault, feels the change. She stated that the drop-off in Canadian guests was most noticeable within the low season, when her gear store and cafe depends on the area people — together with these from the Ontario Sault — to hold it by means of the snowy months.
Between fewer Canadian prospects and rising prices, Hopper stated, enterprise is down about 27% in contrast with what it was final summer season.
“I can inform you that I’ve spoken to enterprise after enterprise up within the Sault Ste. Marie space, and within the jap Higher Peninsula, they usually’re all feeling the stress from this,” stated Michigan state Sen. John Damoose, a Republican who represents the group in Lansing. “Mackinac Island’s feeling the stress, everyone is feeling the warmth from this deterioration in our relationship with Canada.”
It’s a bewildering fallout, he stated. After a brutal ice storm final yr, he remembered Canadians crossing the Sault bridge to assist Michiganders restore {the electrical} grid. “That is our greatest buddy in your complete world,” Damoose stated.
Solely a lot will be carried out about it from the statehouse, although, when it’s Republicans in Washington within the energy place. Two of Michigan’s voices in Washington are the Democratic Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin. They don’t flatly oppose tariffs, however they’ve challenged Trump’s method, calling it, respectively, “chaotic” and “sloppy.” Slotkin has stated that, constitutionally, solely Congress can levy tariffs or elevate taxes. Peters launched bipartisan laws that seeks extra tariff transparency.
Bergman, who has represented a district that encompasses the Higher Peninsula and a further northern swath of the state’s “mitten” since 2017, as soon as careworn the important position Canada performs in Michigan’s financial system. He vowed to work with the Canadian Parliament to “develop market entry between each our nations” throughout Trump’s first time period. And he championed the president’s new North American commerce cope with Canada and Mexico, citing the advantages for Michigan’s farmers, small companies and customers.
However Trump’s commerce insurance policies have made it onerous on many Republicans who as soon as touted free commerce. Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada and a former Michigan congressman, pivoted dramatically on commerce within the Trump period, as ProPublica reported.
Since Trump began his second time period, there’s been no point out of tariffs within the press releases, articles and op-eds on Bergman’s web site. Together with three of his colleagues in Congress, he criticized Canada’s dealing with of wildfires that despatched thick smoke into Michigan in a current letter to the prime minister.
ProPublica reached out to Bergman, his workplace and his marketing campaign a number of instances for touch upon what’s taking place in his district and obtained no response. In addition to Trump’s endorsement, his reelection is supported by the Michigan and U.S. chambers of commerce.
He’s dealing with two challengers within the Republican major on Aug. 4. Each of them instructed ProPublica that the district advantages from sustainable buying and selling relationships.
In addition they echoed what lots of Bergman’s constituents instructed ProPublica: that residents have had scarce alternatives to attach with the congressman in individual. Bergman doesn’t seem to have hosted a public city corridor within the district since his first yr in workplace.
Bergman, who has a home in Louisiana, has confronted long-standing allegations that he doesn’t even make Michigan his true residence. Julie Hoffmeyer, a former member of Bergman’s employees who helps one in every of his major challengers, instructed ProPublica that the congressman refers to his property within the western Higher Peninsula as a “cabin” or a “camp.”
Bergman, responding to previous challenges to his Michigan residency, has referred to as his residence there his major residence and famous that he’s a registered voter within the state.
Trump’s quick-shifting commerce insurance policies are particularly troublesome for Michigan’s agriculture business, the state’s second-largest sector, based on a current report from the state’s agriculture division. The report, which hasn’t but been publicly launched, stated that exports to Canada fell 12.3% final yr, “signalling extreme pressure with a rustic that’s our strongest buying and selling associate.”
In the meantime, the connection between the U.S. and Canada is fraying ever additional. A White Home reality sheet on the brand new 50% tariff acknowledged the ways in which Canadians have modified how they do enterprise.
The White Home stated that Canadian imports of U.S. motor automobiles dropped by about 22% between April 2025 and March 2026, in contrast with the identical interval the yr earlier than. And, it stated, as a consequence of provincial restrictions, Canadian imports of U.S. alcoholic drinks have plummeted.
Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, stated in a letter posted on social media that the collection of tariffs imposed by the U.S. started with ones that had been “in direct violation” of the standing North American commerce deal — the deal from Trump’s first time period that he as soon as celebrated, and that Bergman described as an amazing financial victory for Michigan.
With the deal up for overview this yr, the Trump administration declined a long-term extension of the pact. Carney has additionally broadly signaled that Canada is wanting past its close to neighbor for buying and selling companions.
Carney stated, in an April video posted on his YouTube channel: “A lot of our former strengths, primarily based on our shut ties to America, have turn out to be our weaknesses — weaknesses that we should appropriate.”
