When Canada and Michigan agreed to build a multibillion-dollar bridge at the busiest border crossing between the United States and Canada, the relationship between the two nations was dramatically different.
In 2012, President Barack Obama was admired by an overwhelming majority of Canadians in polls, and the countries were often in agreement, including on border security and increased military cooperation. To honor both countries, the bridge linking Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit was named after the Canadian hockey star Gordie Howe, who played 25 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings.
On Friday, the 6.4 billion Canadian dollar bridge (about $4.5 billion) opened, at least ceremonially, with a president in the White House who has shaken Canada’s economy with tariffs, mused about annexing the country and stalled the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge.
The latest blow came this week when President Trump, who is as disliked in Canada as Mr. Obama was acclaimed, announced 50 percent tariffs on a variety of Canadian products worth $20 billion. For Canada, it’s all been too much. It rescinded its invitations to American officials to jointly open the bridge. And it moved the ceremony from the international border line in the center of the bridge to a vast expanse of pavement at the inspection plaza of the Canada Border Services Agency.
“In light of trade action threatened by the United States earlier this week, it would be inappropriate to proceed with a celebratory event between the two countries,” the office of Canada’s infrastructure minister said in a statement. “The Gordie Howe International Bridge remains a vital infrastructure project that reflects years of hard work and will be a major economic driver.”
In the middle of the ceremony, which included a ribbon cutting and an Indigenous drumming ceremony, Mr. Trump remarked on social media about the change of plans.
“Canada disinvited the United States of America to the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge, which is fine, considering they are paying substantial TARIFFS to the United States,” Mr. Trump wrote.
Mr. Trump added that the 2012 agreement between Canada and Michigan governing the bridge “no longer stands.” Speaking with reporters after the ceremony, Gregor Robertson, Canada’s infrastructure minister said that is not the case.
Some invitations for the ceremonial opening have now been withdrawn twice. At the apparent request of the Trump administration, an opening scheduled for June was canceled days before the event.
Cars and trucks won’t cross the Gordie Howe Bridge until Monday. But with soaring towers and animated lights on its suspension cables, the structure is a flashy version of the sort of big projects that Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, a Liberal, has championed as an antidote to Mr. Trump’s tariffs.
“It’s regretful that this is what it’s come to,” said Drew Dilkens, the mayor of Windsor and an invited guest. “It just speaks to where we’re at with our relationship with the United States.”
He added: “It is a bit underwhelming, but that’s OK. We are where we are.”
Mr. Dilkens is among the many Canadians who hope the opening will finally end a more than two-decade-long battle with Michigan’s wealthy Moroun family that owns the Ambassador Bridge, a nearly century-old span upstream that currently carries around $300 million a day in trade.
Legal action and political lobbying by Matthew Moroun, a Detroit-based trucking magnate, first meant that Canada was left entirely funding the construction of the new international bridge after lawmakers in Michigan, which shares ownership of it, refused to contribute.
In February, following a meeting between Mr. Moroun and Howard Lutnick, the secretary of commerce, Mr. Trump said he would block the bridge’s opening in a social media post citing several grievances. The New York Times reported that a month earlier, Mr. Moroun donated $1 million to a super PAC devoted to Mr. Trump.
A tentative deal that gives the United States a small portion of toll revenue for 15 years was reached this month, leading to the opening.
The agreement is vague on many key points. Originally, Canada planned to use any toll revenue that remained after covering the operating expenses of the bridge to pay back its construction costs — estimated to take at least 50 years. Then Michigan and Canada would split any profit.
Instead, for the first 15 years, the U.S. will get half of any surplus over operating costs, which it will use for economic development “for the benefit of the United States and trade between Canada and the United States.”
While Mr. Trump praised the agreement, forecasts published by the authority that will operate the bridge for Canada and Michigan suggested that it will initially generate nothing or relatively little money for the American fund.
For the current year, the authority estimates that it will only take in 35.8 million Canadian dollars while spending 135.6 million on operations, leaving a loss of nearly 100 million dollars. Next fiscal year it forecasts a 2.9 million loss followed by a profit (excluding repaying Canada’s construction costs) of 18 million dollars in 2028.
The United States has not announced how it will distribute the money from its fund. On Thursday, Mr. Carney said the government anticipated that the United States will receive about 5 percent of the cost of building the bridge, about 320 million Canadian dollars, over 15 years.
“I genuinely am hopeful that at some point in the future, we could close this bridge for a couple hours and have the proper celebration that it deserves,” Mr. Dilkens said. “It would have to be at a time when the relationship’s a little stronger than it is today.”
