The deeply rooted trading relationship between Atlantic Canada and New England started to unravel Tuesday as U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs began causing economic harm on both sides of the border.
In Saint John, N.B., Mayor Donna Reardon said the uneasy emotions being felt in the industrial city were like experiencing the end of a bad marriage.
"Now, we need to figure out what we're doing," she said in an interview Tuesday. "We don't want to go back to that position again where we're so reliant on one other country."
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce recently listed Saint John as the Canadian city most vulnerable to the impact of U.S. tariffs. The port city is home to the massive Irving Oil Refinery, which ships 80 per cent of its refined products — including gasoline — south of the border.
New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt said the tariffs have put about 6,000 jobs at risk.
"These tariffs ... mark a turning point for our province and our country," she said. "We share 17 border crossings with Maine and many New Brunswickers and Mainers alike consider themselves neighbors, cousins. You don't treat your neighbours like this."
The New Brunswick-based Atlantica Centre for Energy says 80 per cent of the vehicles in New England fill up with fuel refined in New Brunswick. As well, New Brunswick's Crown-owned electric utility, NB Power, has long been the primary source of electricity for northern Maine.
In New England, the fallout from the Trump tax had people talking on Tuesday.
Cara Pelletier, mayor of Bangor, Maine, said Trump's 10 per cent tariff on gasoline and heating fuel from Canada would soon lead to higher pump prices in her city, about 180 kilometres south of the New Brunswick border.
She said residents are particularly worried about the municipal airport, where the price of jet fuel imported from New Brunswick was also expected to rise, making it more difficult to attract airlines.
"Maine is an economically disadvantaged state in many areas, and heating fuel and gasoline are among the largest expenses that most households have," she said. "Any impact on prices has a direct impact on what else people can afford."
Beyond trade, Pelletier said she's worried Canadians will start rejecting their historic ties to her state. Teenagers grow up in northern Maine making regular visits to play hockey in Canada, she said. "You grow up knowing both the U.S. national anthem and the Canadian anthem, and you should be able to sing both," she said.
Farther south in Massachusetts, the president of the state's retailers association, Jon Hurst, said few people seem concerned about the tariffs.
"I think it's a wait-and-see kind of thing, and people will start to talk about it when they see it in their monthly family budgets," he said in an interview. "We're hopeful this will be worked out in the days and weeks to come."
Elsewhere in the Maritimes, the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour said the tariffs represent an unprecedented challenge to export-oriented industries including lumber, seafood, Christmas trees, paper products and tires from three Michelin plants. It said thousands of jobs in Nova Scotia could be lost.
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston had sharp words for Trump's actions.
"Donald Trump is a short-sighted man who wields his power just for the sake of it, not having any consideration for the destructive impact of his decisions on both Canadians and Americans," Houston said during a joint news conference in Toronto with Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberto Wareham, president of Icewater Seafoods, said his firm was preparing to send about 40 per cent of its northern cod to American markets when the tariffs were confirmed.
He said job cuts are now possible.
"I guess we'll have to see what unfolds over the next coming weeks," he said in an interview from Arnold's Cove, N.L.
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey said the tariffs will likely put a strain the historic relationship between New England and Canada's East Coast, but he said that won't last forever.
“There seems to be a collective understanding that the United States-Canada relationship is far stronger and will outlive any one president or any one administration or any one ridiculous policy," Furey said Tuesday.
— With files from Sarah Smellie in St. John's, N.L., and Michael MacDonald in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2025.
Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press
