It didn’t take many protesters to shut down a major North American economic artery. The closure of one bridge straddling the U.S. and Canada exposes an alarming supply-chain vulnerability and has laid bare the grip one American family has over an effective monopoly.
A cluster of anti-lockdown demonstrators on the Canadian-side of the border blocked access to the Ambassador Bridge — a privately-owned link between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario. As of Tuesday morning, local police said traffic bound to the U.S. had resumed — but not the other way around. But very little, if any, traffic appeared to be flowing.
There’s literally no bigger bridge for trade between the two neighbours. Built in 1929, the art-deco inspired structure carries on its slender steel build about a quarter of the total goods going back and forth between then the U.S. and Canada. The ties with Detroit’s car industry stretch decades. The bridge carries nearly as much trade as the U.S. does with all of the U.K.
If commerce is disrupted for much longer it could further hobble supply chains that have creaked under the weight of record shipping levels as consumers shift their purchasing power to material goods during the pandemic. The auto sector could see deliveries stymied, as they grapple with parts shortages.
“A closure of the bridge would be catastrophic for the Canadian economy,” Brian Kingston, who heads the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, told said by phone Tuesday.
Even if temporary, this extraordinary shuttering marks the collision of a pair of sagas. You have the rolling protests of truckers, farmers and hangers-on that have taken aim at vaccine requirements, lockdown measures and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Then there is the years-long fight between Canada’s government and the combative Moroun family, which owns the bridge, over the need for a second crossing.
[Interesting Read]
See Also:
(1) Candice Bergen demands Trudeau sit down to discuss end to COVID restrictions
(2) Arrested 78-year-old great-grandfather ‘meant no harm’ by honking
(3) Dispatch from the Ottawa Front: Let freedom sing (badly)
Watch:
Jen Gerson, the backlash.
Silly truckers dont realize they are pawns of the american right and their money.
Listen up toots and do your fugging job. Report on the left and how they have destroyed the economy of Alberta and attacked both Canada and the US or spare us your high school level journalism.