President Trump has announced on his Truth Social platform that he will block the opening of the $4.7 billion Gordon Howe bridge connecting Detroit to Windsor, Ontario unless the U.S. “owns one half of this asset.” In response, Canadian Prime Minister Minister Mark Carney has pointed out that the Canadian Government paid for the bridge, but that the State of Michigan will jointly own the bridge.
Trump has other grievances against Canada, including the sharp drop in Canadian purchases of American whiskey and its miserly defense budgets. But he particularly smolders over Carney’s speech in January at the World Economic Forum, in which the Canadian prime minister stated that in order not to be totally sidelined by the U.S. and China, “the middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.” And he added, “This is not sovereignty.”
Carney’s speech may have excited the European members of his audience, but it rang hollow when he promptly signed a new and expansive trade agreement with Beijing. Moreover, the speech did not break any new Canadian ground. To the contrary, it evoked a longstanding and not entirely dormant Canadian international political stance harking back to the years when the Cold War was at its height. Carney reflects a nearly 80-year-old tradition of Canadian leaders who sought to chart a separate path from the U.S.
Lester Pearson was the earliest prominent and vocal  exponent of the notion that his country and other “middle powers” could somehow navigate between the  great powers. Toward the end of World War II, Pearson, the Canadian Ambassador to the U.S., outlined the role of the middle powers, in general and of Canada in particular, with his country “the leader among a group of States which are importing enough to be necessary to the Big Four [the U.S., the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and China] but not important enough to be accepted as one of that quartet.”
In 1951, Pearson, by then Canada’s External Affairs Minister, told a Canadian audience that there would be “difficulties and frictions” with the U.S. He added that these “will be easier to settle if the United States realizes that while we are most anxious to work with her and support her… we are not willing to be merely an echo of somebody else’s voice.”
Several Canadian leaders shared Pearson’s concerns. Less than a decade later,  Prime Minsiter John Diefenbaker rejected Washington’s plan to place nuclear warheads on the 56 Bomarc missiles that Canada had acquired from the U.S., thereby souring his relationship with President John Kennedy. Moreover, foreshadowing Carney, Diefenbaker tried to reduce his country’s trade deficit with the U.S. and instead diversify trade with different trading partners because he perceived an American threat to Canadian sovereignty.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, Pearson, now Prime Minister, and his successor, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, offered only lukewarm support for the  American War in Vietnam. Three decades later, Prime Minister Jean Chretien openly opposed the American attack on Iraq.
Yet despite the tension with Washington that marked the tenures of all four men, none advocated an open break with the U.S. And neither has Carney.
Carney certainly has reason to resent American bullying. Though he has recently toned down his comments about absorbing Canada into the U.S., Trump could well reiterate his plan at any time. On the other had, Trump’s unhappiness with Canada’s sluggish defense spending and some of its restrictive trade practices is not without merit.
The latest flap over the Gordie Howe bridge is unlikely to be the last between the two countries, certainly not for as long as Donald Trump remains in office.  Nevertheless, both countries will continue to need each other. The U.S. is Canada’s largest trading partner in goods and services, while Canada is America’s second-largest trading partner. The U.S. is the largest investor in Canada;  Canada is the second-largest investor in the U.S. The two countries remain NORAD partners, and jointly operate the North Warning System, whose upgrade I negotiated during the Reagan years,
Carney simply cannot afford a complete rupture with Washington. However much he may resent Trump’s attitude, and however much he seeks to have Canada lead a third way for “middle powers,” he should take care to avoid aggravating the already tense Canadian-American relationship until it reaches a point of no return. That would be a political, military and economic disaster for both countries for which no concert of middle powers could ever compensate.
Dov S. Zakheim is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and vice chairman of the board for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He was undersecretary of Defense (comptroller) and chief financial officer for the Department of Defense from 2001 to 2004 and a deputy undersecretary of Defense from 1985 to 1987.

SKYY

President Trump has threatened to block the $4.7 billion Gordon Howe bridge unless the U.S. owns half of it, prompting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to assert that Canada funded the bridge. Tensions arise from trade grievances and Carney's comments on middle powers at the World Economic Forum. Historically, Canadian leaders have sought to maintain sovereignty while navigating U.S. relations. Despite ongoing frictions, both nations remain economically interdependent, with the U.S. as Canada's largest trading partner. Carney must manage this relationship carefully to avoid a political and economic disaster.

- President Trump announced that he will block the opening of the $4.7 billion Gordie Howe bridge connecting Detroit to Windsor unless the U.S. owns half of the asset.  
- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded, highlighting that the Canadian government financed the bridge and that Michigan will jointly own it.  
- Despite ongoing tensions and grievances, both countries rely on each other for trade and investment, making a complete rupture politically and economically disastrous.

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Canada and the US still need one another