Amid a rift in the Canada-U.S. relationship, MPR News checks in with our northern neighbors

NINA MOINI: Well, for decades, Minnesotans and Canadians, they've been friends and trading partners, easily moving and trading across our shared border. But President Trump's tariff policies and calls for Canada to become the United States 51st state have raised questions about whether or not Minnesotans and our neighbors to the North are still besties.

A couple of my colleagues decided to head to Thunder Bay, Ontario, to hear how people who live near the Minnesota-Canadian border feel about tariffs and how they're affecting the relationship between our two countries. Their special "Our Canada Connections," airs Monday at 9 AM, and they're here to share some of what they have heard. You might have heard of them.

It's MPR News host Angela Davis and Chris Farrell, our senior economics contributor for MPR News and Marketplace. Dynamic duo. Thank you for being here. So fun to have the both of you.

ANGELA DAVIS: Thanks.

NINA MOINI: So folks who listen all the time to your wonderful program at 9 will know that Chris is on with you quite often on Mondays. The two of you were just the greatest pair to send up there. I was a little jealous when I did see you all boarding into your vehicle.

ANGELA DAVIS: We drove. Yeah.

NINA MOINI: We want to start with the hard hitting questions of what was the snack situation? Who was in charge of the playlist? Let's just get that out of the way, Angela.

CHRIS FARRELL: Angela was in charge.

NINA MOINI: OK. That's why I said Angela.

ANGELA DAVIS: The rule is whoever drives gets to control the radio. But yes, we did put some thought into the music and we'll talk about that more. But on the way up, it was straight like 1970s, '80s R&B. Chris seemed to enjoy that a lot.

CHRIS FARRELL: Stevie Wonder. I mean, how much better can it get?

ANGELA DAVIS: Yeah, it set the tone, but yeah.

NINA MOINI: All right. So it was six hours there, six hours back. So you had plenty of time. Yeah. You had plenty of time to dive deep. But Angela, what inspired you to actually go ahead and go visit Canada?

ANGELA DAVIS: Yeah. Well, about a month ago, it was in March. We did a 9 AM talk show specifically about tariffs, trying to get a better understanding of what is going on with tariffs. And as you know, at 9 AM our listeners call in. Well, we got a phone call from a guy who identified himself as Gary. And Gary said he was calling from Calgary. And Chris and I were like, wow, Canada is listening to us.

But Gary, in a very matter of fact tone, said that he was seeing it that he and his friends, that they were no longer buying American products in the grocery store. They were not buying American liquors and wines, and so on. And so we wanted to hear more of that. We're like, oh, do tell. Tell us more. And so we asked if we could go up to Thunder Bay, Ontario, and talk to folks and find out, what are they saying about us?

CHRIS FARRELL: And not only what they're saying about us, but what are they doing? Because Gary had painted this picture about in the grocery stores, people trying to buy different produce and different liquor. And so the thing that was really interesting is we talked to a lot of people and they-- I mean, Angela, they were eager to talk.

ANGELA DAVIS: Yeah. They've already made the switch that they are thinking about Americans and Minnesotans differently. And these are relationships that have been really closed for generations for a lot of these families.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And so people are starting to change even their behaviors. But Chris, it is really hard to keep up with what's going on with the tariff situation--

CHRIS FARRELL: The moving target here.

NINA MOINI: --specifically. So what's going on there in Canada? What are they experiencing?

CHRIS FARRELL: So here's the basic outline. And then, of course, there's going to be changes in re-tariffs and pauses and everything. But Trump has hit Canadian manufacturers with 25% tariffs on cars, steel, and aluminum. And he's targeted billion worth of Canadian goods that aren't part of the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, because many goods that cross the border aren't subject to that trade agreement.

Now, Canada has responded. I mean, it has retaliated and has placed tariffs on billions and billions of dollars worth of US imports, including fruits and vegetables, appliances, and of course, we also saw liquor.

ANGELA DAVIS: Liquor. Well, why are you pointing at me? We saw liquor. What is that about?

NINA MOINI: You kind of a point there. So did you talk to business owners, Chris, there in Thunder Bay? How are they being impacted?

CHRIS FARRELL: I think, I mean, Angela really picked on this word about betrayal. And it was something we saw. So there was a break in trust and deep uncertainty. I mean, what's the end game? What's really happening here? And we got a lot from Charla Robinson. She's the president of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce.

CHARLA ROBINSON: It's definitely causing a lot of concern. The people that I'm talking to are feeling a little sad that this is where we're at. They're disappointed. Canadians are more of let's talk about it. Let's come to a resolution. That's kind of our style and not let's throw all that out with the bathwater and then try to rebuild. It's harder to rebuild when you've broken trust. And so I feel like there's a lot of folks who say that, there's a broken trust here now with the US government that they feel will actually impact us for a long time.

NINA MOINI: Wow. And Angela, I heard again back to the liquor store, where you all spent some time.

ANGELA DAVIS: But this is why we went to the liquor store. Because before we made the trip, I saw a network television report and I had read in several newspapers about how American-made alcohol, in Tennessee and in Kentucky, where they make bourbons, in California, where they grow all these wonderful grapes where a lot of wine is produced, that those products were coming off of the shelves.

So Chris and I went into-- we went for a walk one day, and we walked into a liquor store in Thunder Bay. And we were just of poking around, looking at whiskeys. And Chris stopped one of the workers and said, hey, where can I find some bourbon? And a woman, she looked at us. She didn't know that we were from Minnesota or that we were journalists. And she threw her head back in laughter, and she said, the US liquor is in jail. Just like that. And then we're like, what?

And then she pulled out her phone and she showed us photos. She's like, yeah, it's down in the basement. A couple of months ago, we started boxing up all of the US wines and bourbon and even the rum, the Bacardi, because it's from Puerto Rico. And we are storing it in the basement. We're not selling it right now.

And fortunately, we have the storage space because some stores don't. They're shipping it back to the distributors. But that's real. So you cannot, in a lot of places, find American-made stuff. But plenty of Canadian whiskies and other things and a lot of tequila from Mexico. You can still find that.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. So that feeling, continued betrayal. And I understand you also talked with an economist at Lakehead University, Livio Di Matteo in Thunder Bay. Let's listen to what they have to say.

LIVIO DI MATTEO: Borders are lines of separation, but they're also zones of contact. And so what's happening now is even though there was a border, which was a line of separation, as a zone of contact, it was quite porous. I mean, in a sense, people flowed back and forth. There's a lot of people with families on both sides. I have cousins in Baltimore, Pennsylvania, places like that. People flowed back and forth. And it it was a border, but it was not seen as a border. But the way things are going now, the zone of contact is sort of being hardened.

NINA MOINI: And so you were there. You're talking to economists. You're talking to businesses. This theme of betrayal. Then you're also chatting though with Minnesotans. Correct, Angela?

ANGELA DAVIS: Yeah, on the way up. It's a six-hour drive, I guess, from St. Paul to Thunder Bay. But we stopped in Duluth. We stopped in Grand Marais, we stopped in Grand Portage, along the way and talked to business owners and folks also like in the parking lots of these places.

And one place that folks who go to Grand Marais a lot might recognize is the Java Moose Coffee Shop. And so we talked to the owner and manager of Java Moose Cafe, asked her how she thinks tariffs and this talk of tariffs has really affected her business. And here's what she had to say.

SARAH JORGENSON-HALLBERG: There are a lot less Canadians right now. Part of that is sort of a feel of Canadian nationalism and pride to support Canadian brands and to stay within Canada. And then also just that fear of rising costs is a big factor. The Canadian dollar has diminished a little bit in the last six months to eight months. So that's impactful as well. So it's just more expensive for our Canadian visitors to come down. And then our costs will rise and we're going to have to raise our prices in the next couple of weeks.

CHRIS FARRELL: And another thing that we heard is Sarah went through this really nice list of coffee coming from Brazil, coffee from Indonesia, where the bags are made. So why these tariffs are going to raise her costs of doing business.

ANGELA DAVIS: And one more thing I want to mention when we went into a grocery store, we saw the products peaches and grapes from Chile, oranges from Egypt, products from Guatemala, cantaloupes from Honduras, clementines from Israel, raspberries from Mexico. The only products I saw from the US in the produce section were the apples.

CHRIS FARRELL: That's it.

ANGELA DAVIS: Yeah. So this is real. Yeah, it's real.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. I'm so excited for all the programming that you guys have coming up next week around this. You've got to-- tell us, Angela, you're going to do Monday and Tuesday--

ANGELA DAVIS: Monday and Tuesday. So Monday morning at 9:00, the regular time of my talk show, you're going to hear all of these conversations. We talked to more than a dozen people these interviews. In Thunder Bay, Monday morning at 9 AM. And then Tuesday, we're going to do a live call-in show, and Chris and I will be on. And we want to hear your reaction. And we want you to call in and tell us what you thought about some of what you heard, or your own thoughts on what is happening with this relationship.

Also on our website, mprnews.org, you're going to find lots of photos and videos, as well as on the MPR News YouTube channel, because we have lots of pictures too.

NINA MOINI: And nobody fear because I understand you will also be making your musical playlist available to listeners, including Canada's own Justin Bieber--

CHRIS FARRELL: There you go.

ANGELA DAVIS: We made a Spotify playlist with Canadian artists, and we did jam to a little Bieber coming back.

NINA MOINI: I said Chris Farrell came back into the US a believer.

ANGELA DAVIS: He did.

NINA MOINI: We'll leave it there. Thank you both so much for your reporting and for your work, as always, and for stopping by Minnesota Now, how fun. It's MPR News host Angela Davis and MPR News senior economics contributor Chris Farrell. Thank you both.

[JUSTIN BIEBER, "SORRY"] Sorry Yeah, I know all that I let you down Is it too late--