Politics
Hoekstra argues Canada paying for Gordie Howe bridge is a 'big myth'

Todd Spangler
Detroit Free Press
July 6, 2026 Updated July 7, 2026, 6:38 a.m. ET

Peter Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, has stirred controversy with some critics in that country with remarks on a recent podcast that the claim that Canada paid for the new Gordie Howe International Bridge is "a big myth."

Andrew MacDougall, who was then-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's communications director when Harper and then-Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed an agreement in 2012 for Canada to fund and build the new bridge, likened it to "a punch… in the face." Dimitris Soudas, another former spokesperson for Harper, posted on X that "Canada paid for the bridge" and "history doesn't become fiction just because you say it."

On July 2, Hoekstra, former Michigan congressman, appeared on the Food Professor Podcast, an online discussion about food that originates in Canada, and one of the hosts asked him about the opening of the still-closed Gordie Howe bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, which is completed.


Former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra (left), shown in 2024, said Monday, July 6, 2026, the Gordie Howe International Bridge "will actually be paid for by the folks who are using the bridge."

An opening ceremony had been scheduled for June 12 but was abruptly postponed to an undetermined date, apparently due to issues to be resolved between the U.S. and Canada, though it is not clear what those issues are. In February, President Donald Trump had said the bridge wouldn't open without Canada making trade concessions but he never said what those were. That threat was made shortly after the private owner of the rival Ambassador Bridge met with Trump administration officials and made a $1 million donation to a Trump-aligned political action committee.

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