Shortly after the “Hockey evening in Canada” started on the big screens of a bar in Windsor, Ontario, fans of the arena could be heard delivering a glossy message while the national anthem of The visiting team had been played. They have hooked, long and strong.
The visiting team was Minnesota Wild, the anthem was “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the match in Ottawa on Saturday took place a few hours after President Trump imposed heavy commercial prices on Canadian imports.
Windsor is the automotive capital of Canada, and a city where the flag greeted in the Hye American anthem can often be seen beating next to its Canadian counterpart. With Detroit just opposite, automatic Windsor tickets are doing both in the United States and Canadian dollars.
Thus, Mr. Trump’s decision to impose damaging prices of 25% on most Canadian exports and 10% samples of energy exports has sparked waves of anger and concern at Windsor, and a sense , for many people, deep disappointment and helplessness.
The prices, an astonishing gap of the standard in modern relations between the two countries, have raised concerns concerning a rapid closure of local automobile factories, as well as car factories in Strait through a river which, at certain times, ‘is just half a million wide.
Mr. Trump’s suggestions, repeated again on Sunday, that Canada abandons its sovereignty and throws its fate with the United States simply insults to the injury. Windsor Canadians considered the idea of the American president to be – to say it slightly – deeply unnecessarily.
“What will he do to us?” Asked Navita Peters, a clerk in a convenience store, when she swept a newspaper with a large photo of a Canadian maple sheet of maple on the first page. “It is unfortunate for businessmen., But we are all going to suffer.”
Ms. Peters, who moved to Windsor 25 years ago from Trinidad, said: “It’s overwhelming, but what can we do? I am proud to be Canadian.
Lana Payne, the president of Unifor, a union which represents many workers and employees of the Windsor automobile in other industries across the country, said that since the announcement of Mr. Trump on Saturday after- noon, she had been dropped by messages.
“Many Canadians wake up this absolutely rabid morning this morning and try to understand why their closest ally in the world would do this,” said Payne, who estimated that around 120,000 of her union members work in jobs that depend on exports, mainly to the United States. “I never thought I would see this in my lifetime.”
Windsor had seemed to be on the rise.
After many years of new automobile investments going in other places in Canada or, more often, in Mexico and the South of the United States, Stellantis spent $ 1.89 billion Canadian (around 1.3 billion dollars ) to reorganize a Chrysler assembly plant in Windsor to make electric vehicles alongside gasoline -Powed Ones. With 4,500 employees and thousands of others expected once the third quarter of work added, the factory is the hub of the automotive industry in Windsor.
And on the eastern margin of the city, a 5 billion Canadian dollars battery factory (around $ 3.4 billion) belonging to Stellantis and LG is under construction, with a part already in operation.
Now, instead of anticipating growth, local businesses are impatiently waiting to see if they can keep what they already have.
Flavio Volpe, the president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, a Canadian commercial group, said that the numerous car manufacturers from Windsor receive weekly commands from car manufacturers according to the production calendars of assembly factories in Canada and in the United States. Now, he said, automotive companies are likely to tell creators of parts with American orders “that they need to eat 25%”.
Since the absorption of the tariff would mean losses from 15% to 20% for most parts companies, most will probably decide to stop the shipment, said Mr. Volpe. Car manufacturers should also considerably increase prices to consumers to compensate for prices on finished cars shipped from Canada.
“How are you going to reserve a loss every day?” Mr. Volpe asked.
George PAPP, Managing Director of PAPP Plastics, a room manufacturer whose headquarters are near the Detroit river in Windsor, said on Sunday that he had not yet heard of an automobile company.
“It becomes obvious that it concerns less to punish Canada or Mexico and more restructuring of income for the United States,” said PAPP. Other nations could soon also be affected by American prices. “Canada and Mexico are the global examples of what will happen,” he said.
Since car factories often keep in stock as little as 24 hours of parts, mounting chain stops should quickly follow any suspension of parts. The Stellantis factory in Windsor, which manufactures mini-duties and muscle cars, is one of the risky facilities, as it is based on the United States components that use Canadian parts.
Even before Mr. Trump made the order of official prices and the Canadian government has responded to his own prices on American products, some people from Windsor discussed boycott.
In a cafe adjacent to the distillery where the whiskey of the Canadian club is manufactured – and widely exported to the United States – two men could be heard noisily discussing their options. They excluded to take a vacation in the United States, and even promised not to cross the river for the Detroit Tigers matches once the baseball season at the start.
Under official orders, American beer, wine and springs must be removed from the shelves of the government stores belonging to the government. A supermarket directed paid publications praising the Canadian origins of certain brands of pasta and frozen fries. And online advertisements of Canadian airlines for traveling in sunny winter destinations have encountered comments and derisory calls to Canada.
Although economic concerns predominate, Windsor residents are also concerned about the damage that the dispute poses to the close relationship that they have long appreciated with the United States.
“Detroit is our backyard,” said Dilkens, mayor of Windsor, sitting in a meeting room with a view of the roofs of the American city.
Dilkens said Canada had “cards we can play” in retaliation, but that the prospect has given him no pleasure.
“We want to be friends, as we have been for hundreds of years,” he said. “We are not looking for a battle.”
