Mark Carney says Donald Trump bridge threat will be 'settled' following call with U.S. president

“This is a great example of co-operation between the countries,” Carney told reporters. “Look forward to it opening.”

Later Tuesday, Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt re-emphasized the president’s views have not changed following his call with Carney.

In a White House briefing, she reiterated that “the fact that Canada will control what crosses the Gordie Howe Bridge and owns the land on both sides is unacceptable to the president.”

“It’s also unacceptable that more of this bridge isn’t being built with more American-made materials, even more so than what President Barack Obama committed to with the Canadians at the time at the start of the project. He also believes that the U.S. should own at least half of the bridge, have shared authority over what passes across it, and participate in the economic benefits generated by its use. This is just another example of President Trump putting America’s interests first, and so he made that very clear in his call with Prime Minister Carney earlier today.”

At Queen’s Park, Premier Doug Ford noted it was Trump who “fast-tracked” the span during his first presidential term nine years ago.

“So all of a sudden he changed his mind?” said Ford, accusing the president of being “not truthful” when Trump claimed on social media Monday the bridge had no U.S. content. (All the steel and concrete on the Michigan interchange was American sourced.)

In 2019, Trump approved $15 million for inspection and vehicle screening, the first American funding for a bridge that has supported 12,670 Michigan jobs.

The premier was reiterating what the prime minister had said to Trump earlier in the day.

Carney said he told Trump “the ownership is shared between the state of Michigan and the government of Canada,” and that he emphasized the importance of the two-way trade and tourism traffic that would result.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, chair of the Canada-U.S. Border Mayors Alliance, criticized Trump for using the trade gateway as “a political bargaining chip.”

Dilkens underscored that successive U.S. presidents and Canadian prime ministers worked to advance the second span across the Detroit River, to ease traffic across the privately owned Ambassador Bridge and to ensure trade flows could expand. 

“In normal times, building a span that links two nations like the United States and Canada would be a monumental moment where a prime minister would meet a president in the middle, shake hands, and everyone would celebrate this victory for two nations. Unfortunately, Donald Trump has created an environment of uncertainty where I don’t think that is going to happen in the near term,” Dilkens said in a statement. 

On Monday, in a meandering social media post, Trump complained about Canada’s recent agreement with China to lift tariffs on EVs, canola and seafood, warning the Chinese would “terminate ALL Ice Hockey being played in Canada and permanently eliminate The Stanley Cup.”

The president ruminated about unfair trade practices in the dairy sector and how “Ontario won’t even put U.S. spirits, beverages, and other alcoholic beverages, on their shelves.”

That was a reference to Ford’s yanking U.S. booze from provincially controlled LCBO stores last year in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and auto parts.

The premier, who took his message to American airwaves on ABC and CBS on Tuesday, touted the effectiveness of his U.S. booze ban.

“It’s obviously working. It’s an irritant. But there’s one thing President Trump can do: get rid of Canadian tariffs. It’s a tax on the American people, it’s an attack on the American economy,” said Ford.

“Get rid of it and we’re good to go,” he said, adding “let’s not waver, let’s not buckle down to President Trump’s threats” and calling for Canada to “negotiate through strength not weakness.”

On social media, Trump wrote: “I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve. We will start negotiations, IMMEDIATELY. With all that we have given them, we should own, perhaps, at least one half of this asset. The revenues generated because of the U.S. Market will be astronomical.”

In Ottawa, the Prime Minister’s Office did not issue a formal readout following the conversation between Carney and Trump.

Carney, who does not disclose all his conversations and exchanges with Trump, declined to detail the other issues discussed, which he said were “specific” to negotiations around whether to renew the continental free trade pact known as CUSMA.

Those negotiations have not yet formally gotten underway, and sectoral talks to drop auto, steel and aluminum tariffs have stalled.

The two leaders spoke initially about the “big game” Tuesday between Canada and the U.S. women’s hockey teams at the Milano Cortina Olympics, and discussed other international matters before broaching the topic of Trump’s bridge threat issued via a Truth Social post on Monday evening.

Members of Carney’s cabinet also had measured reactions to the president’s musings.

Industry Minister Melanie Joly said Ottawa takes what the president says “seriously … but also we’ve been able, as a government, to deal with the changes.”

Construction of the bridge was launched by the Conservative government of Stephen Harper, who named it the Gordie Howe International Bridge after the Saskatchewan-born hockey legend, who played for the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings from 1946 to 1971, as a symbol of cross-border alliance and friendship.

A Canadian supply chain expert said there’s no question that blocking the bridge opening would hit economies on both sides of the border.

“This hurts everyone,” said Fraser Johnson, a professor at Western University’s Ivey Business School. “It hurts American businesses shipping to Canada. It hurts their Canadian customers. It hurts Canadian businesses shipping to the U.S., and it hurts their customers, too.”

Johnson estimated that roughly $474 million in goods cross the Ambassador Bridge each day, with up to 80 per cent of that from the highly integrated automotive industry. That’s roughly 30 per cent of all Canada-U.S. goods trade, Johnson said. The Gordie Howe Bridge was widely expected to be a more modern, efficient alternative to the Ambassador Bridge, which opened in 1929.

“It will be vital to the automotive sector, and we’re the ones that footed the capital,” said Johnson.

The local chamber of commerce in Detroit also said the new bridge is vital to the region’s future, a point underlined by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s press secretary.

“It’s good for Michigan workers and it’s good for Michigan’s auto industry,” said Stacey LaRouche. “This project has been a tremendous example of bipartisan and international co-operation.

“It’s going to open one way or another, and the governor looks forward to attending the ribbon-cutting.”

With files from Josh Rubin, Ryan Tumilty and Alex Ballingall