Front Burner - The saga of the Gordie Howe bridge

Episode Date: July 27, 2026

Today, the Gordie Howe Bridge is set to officially open to the public, connecting Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan. Its ceremonial opening on Friday was a one-sided affair. It was originally supposed to be a joint ceremony with U.S. officials, but that was cancelled after President Donald Trump announced his plans to hit Canada with a new whack of tariffs. That’s just one of the many bumps in the road to getting this bridge open.CBC Windsor reporter Emma Loop has been reporting on the Gordie Howe Bridge for years. She talks about the long journey to the opening, and how it represents the Canada-U.S. relationship writ large.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

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Hi, I'm Erin Wary. Today, the Gordy Howe Bridge is set to officially, and finally, open to the public, connecting Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan. Dignitaries gathered on Friday to cut the ribbon and celebrate its opening. Two! But only on the Canadian side of the bridge. Given the recent tariff action from the U.S., we felt that we should, Focus today on celebrating here in Canada, on the workers who put in all the work to build this bridge. The joint ceremony was canceled after U.S. President Donald Trump announced his plans to hit Canada with a new whack of tariffs last week.

He posted on true social about being disinvited on Friday. It's just one of the many bumps along the way in getting this bridge open. So today I'm talking to CBC Windsor's Emma Loop about the weird and winding road to the opening of the Gordy Howe Bridge. Hi, Emma. Hi, Erin. So in the interest of full disclosure, we should acknowledge right off the top that both of us grew up in the Windsor area. I wouldn't say I'm a Windsorite. I grew up, I was born in Windsor.

I grew up in the county and went to high school in Windsor. I grew up in DeCumsee, which is close enough. I can speak with familiarity about the dearly departed tunnel barbecue. Both of us can talk at length about the unique nature of Windsor-style pizza. Shredded pepperoni. Exactly. But this is not simply a case of two Windsorites hijacking front burner to talk about their hometown. The Windsor Detroit border is hugely important to the North American economy.

About a third of all trade between Canada and the U.S. passes through this crossing. For decades, there was just one bridge, the Ambassador Bridge, linking the two cities. And the new Gordy Howe Bridge was a massive undertaking itself, costing the Canadian government $6.4 billion to say nothing of the mirrored political and legal hurdles it faced. But let's go back to roughly the start, essentially, of this new bridge. What was the basic idea? Where does the push for a new bridge come from? This starts decades ago. I had a conversation with former NDP MP Brian Massey.

He used to represent the Windsor West riding. He said this started coming up in the late 90s when he was still a city counselor. And he said that's when discussions around the potential for a new crossing crept up. But it was really in the early 2000s that we saw a bigger push for this, particularly after 9-11. Like you mentioned, this is a vital trade artery between Canada and the U.S. The Ambassador Bridge, it was built in the 1920s, has only four lanes, so two lanes on each side. Traffic can get really backed up. Right now, the 401 in Windsor ends at this split, forcing U.S.-bound trucks onto Huron Church Road to reach the Ambassador Bridge.

From there, drivers have to navigate several traffic lights along a roughly five-kilometer stretch before reaching the crossing. When you tell somebody you would get there at this time and then at that time you won't be there, they're not going to be happy. Truckers say gridlock along this route is common and can have serious consequences when just-in-time deliveries have to arrive by a firm deadline. Whenever we're going here on church, you know, you see the trucks lined up all the time. And we definitely have delays. And that traffic ends up sort of on Windsor City streets, not on some highway with walls around it. It has an impact on the local community. And so they're looking at ways that they can maybe change that.

And also after 9-11, the bridge is closed because of the terrorist attacks. And it sort of prompts the question of, well, what happens if something happens to the privately owned Ambassador Bridge? And if something happened to it, what would happen to all those trucks that trade, that vital artery between these two countries? And so then you see a bigger push at the federal level and studies happening and conversations happening about what that might look like. Yeah. And pretty much right from the start, this idea of a new bridge has a pretty significant opponent. Tell me about the Maroons, the Maroon family and why they're so opposed to this. new bridge. So the Maroon family of Michigan, they own the Ambassador Bridge. A lot of people who aren't from this area like we are are a little bit surprised to hear that the busiest land border

crossing between Canada and the U.S., such a vital trade artery, is privately owned, unlike a lot of border crossings across the country. And that just dates back to the 1920s and refusals by the governments on either side of the border to fund such a massive infrastructure project. But the Maroons took over in 1979. Maddie Maroon, the elder Maroon who passed away in 2020. He wrestled control of the bridge company from none other than Warren Buffett. So the level of power that has been involved and the level of influence that's been involved in this, you know, an infrastructure project has been really notable. And so the Maroons, they take over the bridge and they also have a trucking company,

which works well if you own a bridge where, you know, thousands of trucks cross every day. They also own, you know, a U.S. duty free shop, a gas station on the other side, and a bunch of other companies. Forbes put them on the billionaire's list, Maddie Maroon, before he passed away. So, you know, they've got a constellation of companies and industries that they're involved in, and they have been in control of that bridge since 1979. And as this idea of building a second bridge between Windsor and Detroit starts to get momentum, the Maroons go to some length to basically forestall the idea or prevent it from moving forward. Yeah, they've spent a lot of money and deployed a lot of lawyers to try to stop this.

And the reason is because it's going to cut into their traffic, particularly their commercial truck traffic. They make a lot of money off of tolls, particularly for commercial vehicles. And so this is going to cut deep into their profits. And so they start deploying lawyers. They start, you know, spending millions of dollars on lobbying campaigns in the U.S., both at the state level and the federal level. And, you know, we've seen ads put out before. Dear Mr. President, there are two grand new bridges being proposed in Detroit between America and Canada.

One is American-made, American-owned. It uses American-made steel, 5,000-umption-on. American workers. The other would be Canadian made, Canadian-owned. What's interesting about those ads is they sort of echo some of the not totally accurate statements that the President of the United States has put out recently about the new bridge. And, you know, they're basically trying to say, hey, let us just span our bridge, add a new span to the Ambassador Bridge right next to it instead of spending all this money on another bridge. But of course, as we know, that does not end up happening, but they certainly put a lot of

money and staff into trying to get that. And so what finally gets us to the point where the Gordy-Hawbridge, as it's now known, is finally going to happen. There's been years of legal and political wrangling. what finally gets this deal done? 2012 is the big date to keep in mind here. That's when then Prime Minister Stephen Harper and then Michigan Governor Rick Snyder come to an agreement, the 2012 crossing agreement

that's been in the news a fair bit lately as well, basically saying that Canada is going to foot the bill for this whole thing. To put it in a nutshell, this new bridge, the second across the Detroit River, is an investment in the future, future in the future of the North American economy, of North American trade, and of North American manufacturing. It's a sign of our determination to move forward during a difficult time in the

global economy. And, of course, it is a celebration of the deep friendship that exists between Canada and the United States. I believe the only thing the U.S. has to pay for is the U.S. Customs Plaza on their side. But otherwise, Canada and Canadian taxpayers are building this thing. And it's basically the only way they could get this to move forward because on one hand, Michigan in those years and the years leading up to 2012, they don't have any money. I mean, it's just a couple years after the U.S. financial crisis, the financial crisis of 2008, they've got to bail out the automakers, which of course are a huge industry in Michigan and in Canada. It's not a good time financially for the state to be taking on a massive infrastructure

project like this. then you have the fact that the Maroons spend a lot of money in Lansing, you know, the state capital on on state politicians and funding their campaigns. So Canada basically says, you know what, we're just going to pay for it and convinces the state of Michigan, who has sort of control in this case by U.S. law, that, you know, this is the way to go. And Rick Snyder, who is the governor, despite a lot of Republican opposition to this, he is convinced that this, this This is the right way to go, that they need this new crossing. So 2012 is when that crossing agreement comes out with Canada saying, hey, we're going to foot the bill.

But of course, by 2012, it still has many hurdles ahead. Right. So the prime minister at the time, as you say, Stephen Harper and the governor of Michigan at the time, Rick Snyder, they make this deal. The Maroons make a last ditch effort. They put at least $33 million into a state referendum to try to stop the bridge. At this point, amazingly, the Daily Show with John Sondon. Stewart actually takes an interest and goes to Detroit to cover the opposition to essentially Canada's offer of a free bridge.

Government spending is out of control. Take the hard hit city of Detroit. They're trying to build a billion dollar bridge to Canada, even though they already have the Ambassador Bridge. Fortunately, Detroiters of all walks are taking a stand. Soccer moms. Detroit does not need another bridge. Tea partiers.

It's not just Detroit. It is Michigan tax pay. that's going to pay for this. But this last effort by the Maroons flops, the voters reject the bid by a wide margin, 59% to 41%. Construction of the new bridge finally starts in 2018.

And by this point, it's been given a new name, an actual name, the Gordy Howe International Bridge. For people who aren't hockey fans, do you want to explain the significance of that name? Yeah, Gordy Howe is a famous Canadian hockey player. He's from Saskatchewan originally,

but he was a star of the Detroit Red Wings team for many years. And so his name and his persona really represents that cross-border bond between both Canada and the U.S., but also Windsor and Detroit. He, like I said, is beloved on both sides of the border by both people in Michigan and people in Windsor and Canada beyond. So they thought this would be a good choice for this bridge, you know, that represents that longstanding relationship. If you fly WestJet, you're going to want to know this. Did you know that WestJet flight attendants are working for free?

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So at this point for a while, the construction of the bridge seems to go along without too much trouble. Even Donald Trump seems okay with it. What's the first indication that Donald Trump has changed his mind or has concerns about how this bridge has come together? Yeah, he actually put out a statement with then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talking about how great this new bridge was during his first term. I believe it was in 2017. You know, we don't really hear anything. from the president that's sort of negative towards this bridge up until this year really. Of course, the bridge had other hurdles to face. I mean, there's the ongoing lawsuits from the Maroons.

There was COVID. That really threw a wrench into construction and the costs. And we didn't get any sort of inkling that something was awry until earlier this year. It's, you know, a pretty normal day here in the newsroom in Windsor. And all of a sudden, we see this post pop up on social media. he's posted to truth social. Breaking tonight, Donald Trump threatens to block the opening of a key new bridge connecting Windsor and Detroit. You know, just basically going after the bridge and saying that it's a bad deal. Yeah, it's not clear what in particular prompted this post tonight. But here's the key part that caught an awful lot of people in Windsor and Detroit off guard.

Trump writing, 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. And also there were some false statements in there as well. He claimed that Canada owns it in its entirety, which isn't true. It's co-owned between Canada and the state of Michigan and that they didn't use any American workers or products, which is also untrue. But it was interesting about that.

statement is both the timing and the content. So the content kind of echoes previous arguments that we've heard from the Maroons and, you know, commercials and things like that, statements about this bridge. And the timing is really interesting because as the New York Time reports after that threat, Matthew Maroon, the son of Maddie Maroon, who's now, you know, kind of in control of the family businesses. Hours before this was posted to Truth Social, reportedly met with Howard Lutnik, the Commerce Secretary in the U.S., and then Howard Lutnik apparently had a conversation with the president. And then all of a sudden we get this post. What we also found out afterwards, I did some digging into U.S. lobbying records. What I was able to find is that the Maroons

in the months leading up to this had spent millions of dollars on a top lobbying firm in Trump's Washington is known as Ballard Partners. We also then find out that Matthew Maroon has spent millions of dollars on political donations to Republicans, which is not necessarily new. You know, the Maroons have been donating to lawmakers of all stripes for decades. But what we do find out is that in January, so less than a month before Trump makes this true social post, Matthew Maroon donates a million dollars to a Trump Align super PAC known as Mega Inc. So you've got a million dollar donation, which even by U.S. standards, that's a big donation. And then you've got the meeting with Howard Lutnik, and then you've got this post that comes out.

And you've also been poking into some of the lobbying on the Canadian side. That's right. So I looked at Canadian lobbying records, and they don't disclose, you know, the dollar figures, unfortunately. so we couldn't get a sense of how much the Maroons had spent in Ottawa and elsewhere in Canada to try to plead their case. But it does say sort of what they were lobbying, sort of broad strokes topics, and also who from the Canadian government or members of parliament they were speaking with. And so we did some digging there, and it looks like they had hired a lobbying firm called Wellington Advocacy. Wellington Advocacy is closely aligned with Stephen Harper. So his former top staff run that lobbying firm. So you've now got former PMO staffers who would have worked with Harper when he was advocating for the Gordy Howe Bridge, now seemingly working with the Ambassador Bridge, working on the other side of things.

And so after the Truth Social Post in February, the opening of the book, bridge becomes a bit of an open question. We had this weird false start where it looked like it might be open and then it didn't. And then this month, a new announcement that it's opening, but with a new agreement. Can you sort of walk us through this new side deal? Yes, for sure. So they continue to say the Windsor Detroit Bridge Authority, which is the Crown Corporation that kind of oversees the bridge. They continued to say that, you know, they were on track for a spring opening and that testing and commissioning activities were going on. So they never really came out explicitly and said, hey, there's a bigger sort of political

discussion happening behind the scenes to get this thing open. We did hear from Pete Hoekstra and U.S. officials that that was the case that, you know, he and other top Canadian officials were debating this privately and trying to come to some sort of agreement. And he sort of presented the reasons why the U.S. felt that the original agreement was. wasn't good enough, even though they are getting a free bridge, basically. Canada is serving as the bank for the bridge. The expectation is that over the years, as the bridge generates revenues and those kinds of things, the bridge will be paid back.

So the bridge will actually be paid for by the folks who are using the bridge. It will not be paid for by the Canadian government. government. But we don't hear a whole lot until June. We then see in U.S. media citing unnamed sources that the bridge is going to be opening within the week. So there's going to be some sort of ribbon cutting on the Friday and then it might open on Monday. And then the prime minister comes out and says, it's positive news. Obviously the bridge will be open at the end of the week. And, you know, a symbol is a symbol, but also a fact of cooperations between our countries. Great for Canadians going across the border, Americans coming across the border and for commerce.

And I just want to salute those who constructed it on both sides and looking forward to getting it done. So we start all preparing for this big opening. But then we get a statement from the White House saying nothing has changed on our end. You know, citing what they view is unfair trading practices, kind of echoing some of what Trump said in his earlier true social post about being so, treated so unfairly by Canada, etc. So that seems to throw a wrench into things. And ultimately, Carney comes out and says, you know, we've agreed to postpone to delay the opening of the bridge at the request of the U.S. He says there are some outstanding technical issues to work out, but won't say what

they are. So then finally, earlier this month, we get a statement from the Canadian government saying that the Canadian government and the state of Michigan, which again are the co-owners of the bridge, have agreed to open the bridge with the support of the U.S. government. And it also provides this very vague statement about how Canada and the U.S. have come to an agreement that involves toll revenue and toll governance and an economic development fund. We then get the prime minister at Calgary Stampede in a large. large cabboy hat, something he referenced recently, but it was just like, what is going on here? The prime minister in a large cowboy hat is asked about the bridge deal. At first he says the bridge

is on time and on budget. It is neither. That's a fact. It's neither of those things. He also says that this deal includes profit, net profit sharing with the U.S., but after Canada's debt is paid, which doesn't make a lot of sense because the deal is for 15 years. How is there going to be any profit for 15 years? There's $6.4 billion to pay off. Surely the bridge is not going to be that busy, that they're going to be able to pay that off within 10 years and then be able to split net profits.

So again, it just generates more questions. And long story short, we now get to today. We've heard from the prime minister a few more times. He now claims that when he was talking about that, he was actually talking about the original 2012 agreement between Canada and Michigan, not this new parallel agreement with the U.S. That one, they're going to split net revenue after operating costs, but not after debt payments. And he says, you know, it'll be a nominal amount that'll be split, but again, we just, we don't know for sure.

Right. And I guess, you know, I guess if you've already spent $6.4 billion on a bridge, throwing in a bit more might not seem like that much extra. And there is still an argument for this bridge. The Canadian Trucking Alliance says trucking companies could save between $20,000 and $100,000 per month as a result of traffic moving faster. But the prime minister's explanations raise some questions. What's the political response been in Canada? There has been, you know, continued efforts from the opposition to get more clarity on what exactly happened here.

The conservatives had said basically arguing that they, Canada paid for this bridge in full. So why are we giving the U.S. any more money? Because this economic development fund will benefit. It's controlled by the U.S. government. So there's some sort of language in the agreement about, you know, working together and, and, Canada having a say on how this money gets spent, but ultimately it's controlled by the U.S. government. And so they're looking for answers.

And there is going to be a committee meeting this week, kind of looking into some of these questions. And we should say that at this point, it looks like the revenue going to the United States government is going to be about 320 million, or at least as much as 320 million over those 15 years. so about 21 million per year. But as you say, there's the ribbon cutting on Friday. It's not the ceremony that you might have expected to happen when an international bridge gets opened. But what was the scene on Friday? Yeah. So Canadian officials had a party on Friday, basically, celebrating the opening of this bridge

and disinvited the Americans this last week after. President Trump threatened new tariffs on hundreds of Canadian goods. You know, basically Canadian officials said, doesn't feel like the right time to be celebrating anything with top American officials. And so we're going to do our own thing. The lack of the U.S. presence was notable. There was an event in 2024 when they finally joined the two sides of the bridge where, you know, a worker from the American side and the worker from the Canadian side

took hands at the center of this now connected bridge, and it was such a symbol of the friendship and the longstanding relationship between the two countries and that economic cooperation. And so to then have this ribbon cutting where we're not up really on the bridge, we were kind of just past the customs booth, so technically on the bridge, but basically ground level, with only Canadian officials. And then, of course, members of Gordyhouse family, it was a notable absence and no one really sort of spoke about the elephant in the room until Doug Ford, the Ontario Premier, came up and, you know, made some reference to the fact that, you know, obviously there are these tensions with the Americans right now.

Our relationship has been challenged over the last few years and President Trump has threatened new tariffs just this month, but Team Canada has never been more united. Cordy Howe always brought people together. His success was based on hard work, determination and maybe, as I said, the occasional elbow. But most importantly, a commitment to teamwork. Something that has also defined Canada and the United States relationship for generations. The Gordy Howe International Bridge is more than a new landmark on the Detroit River skyline. It's an example of what we can achieve when our two great countries work together.

But ultimately, the message and the hope was that we can all get past this, you know, knowing that there's still a lot of love between Canadians and Americans, particularly in our region, and that this tension doesn't last. And he said at the time, This bridge will also be a very timely and fitting statement of the friendship between our two great countries. Does it feel like that in Windsor right now? Not really. I mean, I guess it depends on who you asked. But, you know, people around here are still not going to the U.S. as much as they used to or at all.

It was really interesting to go back and read that coverage from 2012, not just because of, Harper's comments, but because of Rick Snyder, the Michigan governor at the time, his comments, talking about, you know, the friendship and the long-lasting relationship between the two countries. Of course, he's going to be kind in that instance because Canada has just offered to build and fund a bridge. But, you know, the tone was so different than what we see now. And I think a lot of people listening might say, well, why should we care about a bridge? This bridge has been literally decades in the making. And as I mentioned earlier, has involved some of the most powerful people in this continent. Everyone from, you know, Maddie Maroon and Warren Buffett and Henry

Ford talking about the importance of the Ambassador Bridge back in the day. This has been, you know, a saga that really represents the strong relationship over the years between Canada and the US, both economic and personal and familial, and the erosion of that relationship. in the last couple years, particularly since U.S. President Donald Trump was reelected a second time and started his, you know, campaign is trade war and, of course, the threats on Canada's sovereignty. And, you know, this bridge really represents more than just a bridge. It represents, you know, both the relationship between Windsor and Detroit, but also Canada and the U.S. I wonder if after everything that it took to get to this opening day, if as many people, will actually still want to be using it? Yeah, it's a good question.

I mean, there's definitely still excitement in the community about this finally being done and about the ability to use this crossing. It's been, you know, sitting on the river and we can see it drive by it, but no one's been able to really use it yet. So I think there's excitement. But I do think that the environment has changed since when they first, you know, started building this bridge or even envisioning this bridge. The relationship between Canadians and the U.S. and between Windsorites and people from Detroit has been tested over the last couple years. As you know, Aaron, people in Windsor, we normally would go across the border quite frequently and vice versa. But that has changed. You know, it's interesting. We've, and recently when the Windsor Detroit Bridge Authority has posted information on social media about the upcoming opening and what people need to know,

A question we've seen from some folks is, can I bike or walk across the bridge and basically turn back around and not enter the United States? Because they don't want to go to the U.S. They just want to check out the bridge and they are going to be able to bike and walk across. But they want to experience the bridge but not actually cross the American border, which they are allowed to do. I spoke with the CBSA on Friday about it. they just have to make sure they bring their identification because they will need to go through Canadian customs on the way back, even though they haven't gone into the U.S.

But that's the type of question we're hearing, and I think it illustrates sort of the bittersweet moment that we're in right now. All right, thanks, Evan. Thanks, Erin. I'm Erin Werry, in for Jamie Poisson. Thank you so much for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca slash podcasts.