COLUMN: Viewpoint – Ambassador and Gordie Howe bridges

I have crossed the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit probably a hundred times. My husband’s family lives in Leamington, a town close to the border city of Windsor. So every summer, and for many Christmases of our 53-year marriage, we have gone to Leamington to visit. Our round-trip journeys almost always took us through the United States, since Leamington’s designation as the southernmost mainland community in Canada, made a primarily American route the shortest way to travel between Manitoba and my husband’s childhood home in Ontario.

During our stay in Leamington, excursions back into Detroit to watch a Tigers ball game were always part of the summer agenda. My brother-in-law was a Canada customs agent for many years at the Detroit-Windsor crossing, so we have plenty of connections to that border link.

Because of those connections, learning a new bridge between Michigan and Ontario had been built, was of unique interest to us. The bridge took seven years to construct and is named after Gordie Howe, a Canadian hockey hero who played for the Detroit Redwings. But it almost didn’t open, thanks to an obstinate American president. The owner of the Ambassador Bridge, Matthew Moroun, is a major Trump donor. Since he’d lose income from tolls on his Ambassador Bridge when the Gordie Howe Bridge was operational, Moroun essentially bought the president’s favour, and pressured him to stall the opening of the new bridge. Canada had paid for the entire construction cost of the bridge and political and business leaders in Michigan were totally on board and enthusiastic. Despite this, Trump decided to reward a wealthy supporter by threatening to keep the bridge closed. Thanks to a deal brokered by Prime Minister Carney, the bridge opened anyway.

I’d love to see it!

That could take a few years however, since I won’t be going back into the United States until their attitude towards my country changes. I’m hardly alone in my decision not to cross the border. Visits to the United States by Canadians were down by about 25 percent last year. The New York Times cites different reasons for the decline in cross border travel by Canadians. Most are upset about the tariffs Mr. Trump has imposed on us for clearly ridiculous reasons, like the fact our wildfire smoke is bothersome to his country. Other Canadians have halted travel to the United States because of Mr. Trump’s threats to annex our nation and make us the 51st state. Last week in a speech in Las Vegas he called us ‘nasty.’

I know some people need to travel to the United States for work, study, or for family reasons, but traveling there for pleasure seems somewhat unpatriotic. To make that point, I’m willing to fly to Ontario to see our family or take the longer driving route through Canada to get there. Although we have wintered in the United States many times we have not returned since Mr. Trump was re-elected.

The Council for Canadians says there are other things we can do besides avoiding travel to the United States in order to defend Canada’s sovereignty and protest the bullying and intimidation of the American president. We can boycott American products and whole-heartedly support our Prime Minister in his efforts to find new trading partners and markets for our country’s resources and goods.

Hopefully, someday soon, the American people will come to their senses and elect leadership that appreciates the advantages of a friendly and mutually beneficial relationship with their northern neighbours. I’m looking forward to that happening, and also to making my first trip across that brand new Gordie Howe Bridge.