As Trump Tariff War With Canada Drags On, This Border Community Suffers Without a Voice

On the northeast edge of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, nearly 1,100 people gathered for the International Bridge Walk across the long span linking two cities with the same name: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. While participants sported patriotic attire and proclaimed a message of being “Stronger Together,” an increasingly hostile trade relationship between the United States and Canada has cast a severe economic shadow over the region.

Traffic over the vital international crossing has plummeted as President Donald Trump’s administration has escalated tariffs against our northern neighbor. White House actions, including a 50% tariff on an array of Canadian products cited under the guise of “Canada’s discriminatory treatment of American products” and an additional 10% tariff, have triggered a retaliatory consumer boycott north of the border. For the isolated residents and small business owners of the eastern Upper Peninsula, the fallout is devastatingly real, yet their congressional representative remains conspicuously silent.

Economic Fallout and the Cost of the Cross-Border Boycott

The Sault area lost at least $82.9 million last year in local spending due to decreased bridge crossings, according to estimates from the International Bridge Administration. That figure breaks down to $62.7 million lost on the Michigan side and $20.2 million on the Ontario side. Total crossings dropped by 270,000 last year—nearly a 24% decline from 2024—outpacing drops at Michigan’s other border crossings. Halfway through 2026, auto traffic remains locked at these depressed volumes, while commercial traffic has dropped nearly 15% further.

Michael Broadway, a geographer and professor emeritus at Northern Michigan University who has researched these travel trends, notes that ordinary Canadians are exercising economic self-determination. “What Canadians have done, of course, is they’re boycotting the U.S.,” Broadway observed during the bridge walk. While everyday citizens can do little about federal politics, “what they can do is they can vote with their feet.”

This economic chill directly impacts small businesses that rely on cross-border traffic to survive the punishing winter months. Wilda Hopper, co-owner of Bird’s Eye Outfitters in the Michigan Sault, reports that business is down roughly 27% compared to last summer. State Sen. John Damoose, a Republican representing the community in Lansing, emphasizes the widespread pain. “I can tell you that I’ve spoken to business after business up in the Sault Ste. Marie area, and in the eastern Upper Peninsula, and they’re all feeling the pressure from this,” Damoose said, adding that even Mackinac Island feels the heat from the fractured diplomatic and trade reality.

Geopolitical Shockwaves and Shifting North American Trade

The friction extends far beyond local retail. The Sault bridge spans the St. Mary’s River just west of the historic Soo Locks, serving as the only vehicular border crossing for hundreds of miles in either direction. Peter Petainen, bridge director and an Ontario Sault native, noted that post-pandemic recovery numbers were immediately erased once the federal tariff dispute took hold.

Nationwide, Canadian data shows that the total number of Canadians returning from the United States dropped by more than 25% last year. Meanwhile, a White House fact sheet on the new 50% tariff acknowledged that Canadian imports of U.S. motor vehicles dropped by about 22% between April 2025 and March 2026 compared to the previous year, while provincial restrictions have caused Canadian imports of U.S. alcoholic beverages to plummet.

Compounding the diplomatic freeze, the Trump administration declined a long-term extension of the North American trade deal during its mandatory review year. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney noted in a social media letter that the U.S. tariffs began with measures in direct violation of the standing trade pact. Carney signaled a broader strategic realignment for Canada, stating in an April video that “many of our former strengths, based on our close ties to America, have become our weaknesses — weaknesses that we must correct.”

Political Silence and Representation Gaps in Washington

Despite the severe pressures facing Michigan’s agriculture sector—where state data shows exports to Canada fell 12.3% last year—federal representation for the region has offered little relief or engagement. U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, a Republican whose district encompasses the Upper Peninsula, once enthusiastically championed Great Lakes trade and praised the Sault bridge as a vital economic lifeline during Trump’s first term. Yet, during Trump’s second term, Bergman’s official website and press releases have been entirely silent on the crushing impact of the new tariffs.

ProPublica reached out repeatedly to Bergman, his office, and his campaign for comment regarding the district’s economic strain, but received no response. Constituents and local leaders have noted a severe lack of direct access, pointing out that Bergman has not hosted a public town hall in the district since his first year in office. As Bergman faces a contested Republican primary, challengers are left to pick up the mantle of advocating for sustainable trading relationships that keep the Upper Peninsula’s economy afloat.

For a twin-city community that views itself as a single family—where neighbors from Ontario historically cross the bridge during emergencies to help repair electrical grids—the ongoing tariff war represents a bewildering and costly fracture. As federal policy makers in Washington maintain their hardline stance, residents watching the quiet traffic on the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge are left wondering how long their local economy can bear the weight of a distant political battle.