The Gordie Howe bridge is still closed and Trump won't open it. What that says about 'Fortress North America'

But there’s also a silver lining, if it increases skepticism about the “Fortress North America” pitch that Mark Carney’s government has recently been making, that Doug Ford has been invoking for longer, and that Canada’s business community still seems somewhat credulous about.

As a general rule, fortresses don’t have moats running through them. If Trump wants to treat the Detroit River as such, that makes talk of greater economic integration with the U.S. as a bulwark against Chinese domination difficult to take seriously.

That’s especially the case because, while the symbolism of the gleaming 2.5-kilometre structure sitting empty is hard to miss, the confusing saga around it is a microcosm of why normal relations with the U.S. are impossible for as long as Trump is in power.

Consider the many explanations floating around for why the bridge’s planned opening two weeks ago was cancelled at the President’s behest.

There’s the general need to seek leverage in any possible situation. If a bridge is something we want, something we were willing to pay for, it must be something that can be used against us to achieve concessions.

There’s the uncertainty about which member of the erratic cast of characters inhabiting and orbiting his White House has his ear at any moment. In this case it seems to be Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who pressed for the bridge to remain closed so the U.S. could seek a higher share of toll revenue, according to a Bloomberg report this week.

There’s the sketchy beholdenness to people who give money to him or his political efforts. That would be the Moroun family, who own the ancient Ambassador Bridge that would stand to lose value with Gordie Howe’s opening, and gave $1 million to a Trump-aligned political action committee.

There’s the antipathy toward state-level Democratic politicians, who happen to run most border states — including Michigan, where Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s push for the bridge’s opening was probably added incentive to keep it closed.

And, perhaps most importantly in the broader context, there’s the constant evidence that Trump doesn’t even want the current level of cross-border integration. Never mind that the automotive sectors on both sides of the border want to keep building cars together, with components quickly flowing back and forth (which helps explain why Whitmer’s Republican predecessor, Rick Snyder, was also a Gordie Howe booster). Trump shows no signs of wavering from his view that Canada is a competitor, and that U.S. manufacturing should be re-shored not just from overseas but from here as well.

Running through all that is the challenge of sorting through Trump’s own explanations, which previously included confused claims about the bridge’s ownership structure. His knowledge of anything involving the Canada-U.S. relationship appears so limited that his judgment is swayed by whatever misinformation he’s being fed at any given moment.

That ignorance does somewhat justify Carney’s attempt to make Trump understand our mutual benefits by arguing that “Canada Strong will help make America great again,” as he put it last month to a New York audience. We need to salvage as much of the relationship as possible, especially when seeking relief from tariffs hobbling Canadian manufacturing. 

But there’s some danger the continental boosterism could distract from the genuine effort Carney’s government is making toward greater trade diversification and self-reliance.

And there’s risk, too, in Ottawa repeatedly telling us that co-operative and relatively sophisticated private conversations between Carney and Trump are taking place. It can feed the complacent bias among some Canadian business leaders that currying favour with the U.S. is the only path forward.

So perhaps it’s for the better that those accounts get harder and harder to believe, as Trump’s actions belie them.

Not that we should need to be reminded that we take comfort in the Fortress North America notion at our own peril.

Recall that back in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s 2024 election win, Justin Trudeau’s government tried making the same Fortress North America case. Its reward was Trump declaring a trade war on some of our core industries (and half-jokingly threatening annexation) immediately upon taking office.

Maybe the physical manifestation of a link between the two countries that Trump refuses to open will be enough for us to take the hint this time.