Sawt Falasteen - 'Failing marriage': Canadian border cities dismayed by US trade rift

The city of 85,000 across the border from Port Huron, Michigan is an energy hub with 26 transnational oil and gas pipelines.

Residents of both cities for more than a century helped each other out, for example, if a fire broke out. They jointly held hockey tournaments, the last one just two weeks ago.

Their economies are very integrated and personal bonds run deep, Sarnia mayor Mike Bradley told AFP.

"But it all seems to be coming to an end. And it does not appear that we're going to be able to resurrect that relationship in the future," he said.

Trump on Saturday signed off on a 25-percent tariff on all Canadian imports except energy, which will see a 10 percent levy.

"There's just a great sadness," said Bradly of his community. "The anger is deep."

"We've had squabbles in the past (with the US), but it's different this time, it has become personal."

"It's like a failing marriage. You do everything possible to save the marriage, but in the end, you can't do it, and so then you deal with the impacts of it," he said.

Much of the past quarter century saw governments and industry on both sides of the border link a tight web of pipelines and refineries in Canada and the United States.

This interdependence was meant to strengthen continental energy security by reducing reliance on overseas oil.

So it came as a shock to Canadians that Trump would target Canada with tariffs that risk upending cooperation in the energy sector.

Bradley described stopping at a fast-food restaurant on his way home Saturday evening, after the US tariffs were announced, where "instead of the usual talk, there was a half dozen people upset and angry about what was happening."

He said he has also fielded a flurry of calls from locals demanding that American flags lining Sarnia streets alongside Canada's Maple Leaf be taken down.

"Those flags were a sign of goodwill and acceptance of our (bilateral) relationship, and now that's in tatters," he said, agreeing to remove them. "It's just symbolism. But I've learned from our American friends that symbolism is very important."

I.Saadi--SF-PST