July 1 is Canada Day, and across the river in Windsor, and all across the country, Canadians are celebrating it under the strangest cloud in years. Their closest ally and biggest trading partner has spent the past year hitting them with tariffs. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has floated the idea of making Canada the 51st state more than once.

The friction is intensifying in Detroit. A new bridge to Windsor, the Gordie Howe, is finished and ready — but it is sitting empty, reportedly blocked by the Trump administration.

Here’s what makes today remarkable. The U.S., Canada, and Mexico share a big free-trade deal — it’s what lets cars, food, and almost everything else move across their borders cheaply. When they signed it six years ago, they set a date to revisit it and decide whether to keep it. That date is today — July 1, 2026. So this Canada Day lands on the exact day that the deal comes up for review.

Craig Baird, host of the podcast and radio show Canadian History Ehx, says we have actually been here before. He told host Robyn Vincent that tariffs have historically made Canada stronger.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand. Never miss an episode — subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or NPR, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Canadians don’t feel so hot toward the U.S. right now. Thirty-seven percent view the country favorably, and most think even less of President Donald Trump. 

That’s in part because of a 25 % tax the president issued on steel and aluminum, which has cost thousands of jobs for people in Windsor alone. Most of those folks work for auto suppliers. 

Today is not only Canada Day, it’s also the day that talks are set to begin to renew the U.S.-Mexico-Canada-Agreement. And so, The Metro wanted to learn about what sentiments are like across the Detroit River. 

How are workers in the “steel belt” of Ontario and Quebec reacting to changes? And, how is it shifting their orientation towards America and altering how they see themselves?

Flavio Volpe is the president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, which is located in Toronto. He says American tariffs on Canada have made many Canadians skeptical of America.

“We may never trust them the same,” says Volpe.

The Metro’s Sam Corey spoke with the auto manufacturer president about why America’s aggressions toward Canada have led to losses for everyone.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and stream on-demand.

Never miss an episode — subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, NPR, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Detroit and Windsor sit across a narrow river from each other, close enough to see the lights on the other side. For decades, they existed like one town in two countries. Auto parts crossed the water again and again before a single car was finished. Families, music, and Saturday nights moved back and forth with a constant rhythm.

Then, after 9/11, crossing got harder with longer waits and tougher searches.

Soon, the two cities will cut the ribbon on something new between them: the Gordie Howe International Bridge. That ribbon cutting, scheduled for June 12, has been postponed, and officials aren’t saying exactly why. 

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has called the bridge a symbol, but also a fact of cooperation. Yet it comes at a tense moment. President Donald Trump has threatened to block it, wrongly claiming the U.S. would get nothing from a bridge that Michigan actually co-owns.

So what does this bridge, the first publicly-owned one at this border, do for Windsor and Detroit — and for the people who have spent their lives crossing between them? 

On The Metro, host Robyn Vincent spoke with Lee Rodney, a border-culture scholar at the University of Windsor and creator of the Border Bookmobile, about what a new bridge actually does for a region the border has divided.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and stream on-demand.

Never miss an episode — subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, NPR, or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro