'Always respect the judgement of the American people': Sarnia’s mayor hoping for relationship-building over rhetoric

Sarnia's mayor is hoping that relationship-building takes precedence over rhetoric, as president-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House.

Having served as mayor since 1988, Mike Bradley has seen presidents come and go. He said each administration brings its own set of challenges and opportunities, "Anytime there's a change in government in the US you try to figure out what the move is. You always respect the judgment of the American people. And then you work with the different issues."

One of the immediate concerns for many in Canada is a campaign promise that President-elect Trump has vowed to make good on. According to Bradley, it will most acutely be felt by border communities, "The 800-pound gorilla is the tariff issue. If we get hit with a series of tariffs it will decimate the border traffic. It will hurt America more than it'll hurt Canada in the long term."

Sarnia mayor Mike Bradley fears tariffs could reduce traffic across the Bluewater Bridge (CTV News File Photo)

Sarnia is home to several industries, many tied to petroleum refining, that are highly dependent on the US economy.

For years Bradley, along with provincial and federal representatives, have dealt with efforts by Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer to decommission Line Five - a pipeline that carries oil and propane under the Straits of Mackinac.

Bradley told CTV News, it became a matter of consensus-building, "We learned that we could move American opinion in our way. And I point to Michigan, where we have the support of the labor unions and others to keep point five operating because of the benefit to Michigan. And that's how we sold. You can't afford to lose that propane. You can't afford to lose some of the other products that come through this pipeline."

While Bradley takes a mostly optimistic tone, he said the incoming US President has broached a strategy which he feels is particularly troubling, "He's been talking about the last year or two of diverting water from Canada from the Great Lakes and from the Columbia [River] to the United States, to Arizona and to Nevada - in those areas. That does concern me."

Flags wave in Port Huron, Michigan, across the St. Clair River from Sarnia (CTV News File Photo)

Bradley is also very aware of the amplified influence Trump will have over U-S policy compared to his first term from 2016 to 2020, "It's not an overstatement to say the President, now, as he comes into office, has much more control and power than he did back then. I'm hoping some lessons were learned about the approach over those four years, and there's a better way to work with your biggest trading partner to resolve these issues and not turn them into these type-of wars that aren't productive."