Canada Watches “A Twitching U.S. Elephant”

For Canadians watching American events last week, it was a roller-coaster ride.  The sudden about-face by President Trump, early in the week, threatening to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, continues to make Canadian news.

Then the U.S. House of Representatives passed a vote to rescind Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods.  The vote is largely symbolic, as it also needs approval by the Senate, and then has to go to President Trump, who is extremely unlikely to sign it into law.

The U.S. Is Like Sleeping With An Elephant

For Canadians, an eventful week like this makes the famous quote in former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s speech, in 1969 to the Washington Press Club, all the more relevant today.

“Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant.  No matter how friendly or even tempered is the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”

And nearly 60 years later, for Canadians, the American elephant continues to twitch and grunt.  Still, Wednesday’s U.S. House vote to rescind the tariffs on imported Canadian goods is being viewed as a positive sign.  And while Ontario Premier Doug Ford is baffled by Trump’s reversal of his own strong support for the bridge project, Ford says that the upcoming mid-term elections will see a lot of U.S. Representatives pushing hard to get the Gordie Howe Bridge open as soon as possible.

“Make no mistake about it, this bridge is going to open, and I’ll tell you the reason it’s going to open," Ford said.  "It’s because it’s in the best interest of the Congresspeople who are going for re-election in the midterms. And if President Trump didn’t want this to go forward, why did he fast-track it nine years ago in 2017?”

What Impact Will This Have On The American Midterms?

There has been much debate around just what President Trump could do to block the opening of the Gordie Howe bridge, which is jointly owned by the State of Michigan and Canada.  But Drew Dilkens, the mayor of Windsor, said that, even though blocking the bridge does not make good business or political sense, this is an ‘international crossing’ staffed by federal employees.

“Donald Trump is suggesting that he’s going to block it until the U.S. is made whole," Dilkens said.  "I would suspect his mechanism would be to starve Customs and Border Patrol resources so that it couldn’t effectively open. Politically, this makes no sense in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, especially. They understand how important this is for business. I suspect, come spring when the weather breaks, the bridge will open.”

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