Fans in the arena could be heard sending a cold message when the visiting team’s national anthem was sung just after “Hockey Night in Canada” got underway on the large screens of a Windsor, Ontario, pub. Long and loud, they booed.
Hours after President Trump announced high trade duties on Canadian products, the game in Ottawa on Saturday featured the Minnesota Wild as the visiting team and “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the anthem.
The flag that is praised in the derided American anthem is frequently seen waving next to its Canadian equivalent in Windsor, Canada’s automotive hub. A.T.M.s in Windsor pay out both Canadian and U.S. cash because Detroit is located right across the border.
Many Windsor residents are feeling deeply disappointed and angry as a result of Mr. Trump’s decision to put 10 percent levies on energy exports and crippling 25 percent tariffs on the majority of Canadian exports.
The tariffs have sparked worries about the immediate closure of local auto plants as well as auto facilities in Detroit across a river that is occasionally just a half-mile wide. This is a startling divergence from the usual in contemporary relations between the two countries.
The comments made by Mr. Trump, which were reiterated on Sunday, that Canada give up its sovereignty and join the United States only made matters worse. To put it plainly, Windsor’s Canadians thought the American president’s proposal was incredibly unneighborly.
As she price-scanned a newspaper with a huge photograph of a Canadian maple leaf flag on the main page, convenience store cashier Navita Peters pondered, “What is he going to do to us?” “We’ll all suffer in the end, even though it’s bad for the businessmen.”
Ms. Peters, a Trinidadian who relocated to Windsor 25 years ago, stated: “It is distressing, but what can we do? I take great pride in being Canadian.
The head of Unifor, a union that represents many Windsor autoworkers as well as workers in other sectors nationwide, Lana Payne, said she has received a ton of messages since Mr. Trump’s tariffs were announced late Saturday afternoon.
