After decades of bilateral stability, the vote on Canada’s next leader now is expected to focus on who is best equipped to deal with the U.S.

Korva herself didn’t want to talk politics with a Free Press reporter who had come to Windsor to gauge the mood in the city, but her comments shared one of the sentiments that was heard throughout the day: that people in the Windsor and Detroit areas are close, like family. Consternation at recent events was another.

Under Trump's flip-flopping raft of tariffs, Washington placed a 10 percent tariff on Canadian energy, the major supplier to U.S. states hugging the northern border. Ford has pledged retaliatory 25 percent tariffs on Canadian electricity sent to the U.S. states of New York, Minnesota and Michigan from Ontario, to take effect on Monday.