As tensions mount along the U.S.-Canadian border due to trade war threats, the international Detroit region has the unprecedented opportunity - no, the necessity - to rise above temporary politics in support of our collective outdoors.
The first time that I visited Canada, I was on the hunt for its outdoors. Literally and figuratively.
It was Thanksgiving 2003 and my Detroit Lions had just managed to pull off a victory against the Green Bay Packers. I was still wearing my Joey Harrington jersey at our large family gathering a few hours later, beaming with joy at my team's under-dog victory over our divisional rival.
My Uncle Mike picked up on my excitement. As stoked as 11-year-old Dan was about the win, he still had an ace up his sleeve to top-off a perfect holiday visit to Metro Detroit.
"Hey Dan - any interest in going duck hunting in Canada this weekend?"
The answer was an obvious, emphatic "yes." Even by those early years, my two greatest recreational passions - international travel and the outdoors - were already firmly welded into the foundation of my personality. The fact that I had an opportunity to marry both of those interests within a day trip blew my mind. Especially as a kid from Washington, D.C. that had yet to explore the vast array of outdoor experiences found within the Detroit region.
Twenty-two years later, the binational nature of the Detroit region's outdoors continues to serve as one of my favorite aspects of living in this corner of the world. Since Expedition Detroit's genesis, we have lauded the rare and world-class recreational opportunities found on both sides of the border. Unforgettable moments like watching the sunrise at Point Pelee National Park or running through the fanfare in Windsor during the Detroit Free Press International Marathon. Competing in cycling races through the rolling Ontario countryside or paddling along the southern bank of the Detroit River. And so, so much more.
In fact, for the majority of our operating history, our #TrailtownSpotlight feature on Amherstburg, Ontario held the coveted position of Expedition Detroit's most-read article.
We're proud that the Detroit region transcends an international border. That our adventure athletes and relaxed recreationists alike get the privilege of readily exploring two interconnected, yet differentiating, ecosystems. We broadcast that pride openly and emphatically.
So you can imagine our surprise when we received the following comments to ads promoting our guided hiking trips platform:
"Sorry but no. 🇨🇦"
"Nope 🇨🇦"
"Sadly we are boycotting the U.S. until the evil pair are gone. Sorry."
Do a few comments signal the utter destruction of the binational outdoor relations that we at Expedition Detroit cherish so fondly? No - or at least we hope not. But these comments are startling since they address another, deeper concern: that high-level political tensions are fueling personal vendettas and xenophobic decision-making.
Don't worry - our business operations can, and will, survive this tense period.
Our outdoors, on the other hand, may not be so lucky if international collaboration grinds to a halt.
Simply put, the Detroit region cannot afford to allow tariffs to divide our shared outdoor heritage and ecosystem.
WHERE WE'VE BEEN: THE COMMON NATURE OF DETROIT'S OUTDOORS
The shared history of Southeast Michigan and Southwest Ontario dates back to the dawn of recorded history - plus several millennia.
Beginning at the end of the last ice age (roughly 16,000 years ago), the Laurentide Ice Sheet gradually receded into ice masses called "lobes," with the two most prominent lobes over the Detroit region comprising of the western Saginaw and eastern Huron-Erie lobes. The Saginaw lobe covered most of "the mitten" that's now Michigan's lower peninsula. The Huron-Erie lobe covered southeastern Metro Detroit, Detroit proper, Windsor, and most of southwestern Ontario. The massive deposits left behind carved our thousands of lakes, rivers, ponds, kettle pools, and the dramatic "Jackson Interlobate Range" highlands that comprise most of our Michigan State Parks, Huron-Clinton Metroparks, ski hills, and mountain biking trails.
As the ice receded and a pristine ecosystem emerged, ancestral settlements of the First Nations began hunting, fishing, and settling in the forests, marshlands, and grasslands surrounding the Detroit River. By the time of the first European contact in the 17th century, the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi tribes had firmly established roots throughout the region. These same tribes formed commercial and military alliances with the French, British, and Americans as each power rose to prominence in the Great Lakes, with certain tribes aligning and realigning with Western forces during conflicts like the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812.
The fluidity of the U.S.-Canadian border progressed throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Prior to the American Civil War, the Detroit River represented the final stop - codenamed "Midnight" - on the Underground Railroad for runaway slaves seeking the protection of British Canada. The unprecedented industrialization of the City of Detroit in the early 20th century led the Detroit River to be dubbed "the Greatest Commercial Artery on Earth." The border also rose to unique prominence during America's Prohibition Era, during which an estimated 75% of all liquor smuggled into the United States entered from the Detroit region.
As Americans and Canadians returned home victoriously from the Second World War, their joint efforts would migrate from the battlefield to fueling an increasingly-interdependent economy. The automotive industry particularly ballooned on both sides of the border, leading the Detroit region's border crossings to evolve into some of the most lucrative and voluminous trade corridors in the world. In early 2025, that figure amounted to roughly $323 million worth of product crossing the border every single day.
The purpose of this historical overview is not to claim that the Detroit region's resident Canadians and Americans are identical. Anyone with a sibling knows how different you can be even when originating from the same gene pool. However, from our glacial foundations to interwoven industries, we share a complex, common heritage. We often root for the same teams, enjoy the same recreational pastimes, work similar jobs, and share common beliefs.
Most importantly for Expedition Detroit, we also share the same beautiful, fragile natural environment. So much so that I regularly receive "Welcome to Canada!" texts when leading guided hikes on Belle Isle.
If only our governments understood how close we are - and how devastating a tariff-induced trade war will be to our healing environment.
WHERE WE'RE AT: THE POLITICAL TENSIONS PULLING US APART
So..why exactly is Expedition Detroit receiving misguided, anti-American comments on our ads? In one word, tariffs. The same buzzword sending shockwaves around the world.
In case you're not 100% on what exactly a "tariff" is, it's defined as "a tax imposed by one country on the goods and services imported from another country to influence it, raise revenues, or protect competitive advantages." Stated differently, in order to discourage consumers in Country A from buying goods and services from Country B, Country A places a tax on Country B's goods and services to make them more expensive, and therefore less appealing, to the average Country A consumer.
Who benefits from tariffs? The answer is two parties: the government and domestic producers of the otherwise tariffed goods and services. The importing government benefits from creating trade leverage on the exporting country's government. The domestic producers benefit since they now have a price advantage over foreign, competing producers.
Everyone else suffers under tariffs. Especially all of us domestic consumers. Foreign-produced goods and services, often produced more cheaply than domestic, are now more expensive. We inevitably bear those costs.
And, to make matters worse, tariffs are often reciprocated - so domestic producers end up feeling the pain as well.
Apologies for the economics lesson on an outdoor recreation website. Unfortunately, this is a lesson you truly shouldn't tune out of like your high school Econ class.
Beginning tomorrow, March 4th, the Trump Administration's 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports will go into effect. The President's rationale for imposing the tariffs include "halting the flow of migrants and fentanyl across their borders" and into the United States. As predicted, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last month that Canada would respond "forcefully and reciprocally" to Trump's tariffs, signaling a potential for a trade war between the two North American allies.
Now, on the eve of Tariff-mageddon, consumers across both borders of the Detroit region are bracing for the following repercussions:
More expensive every day goods for U.S. consumers, including crude oil, wood and lumber, plastics, charcoal, aluminum, paper books, and iron and steel appliances.
Massive stock exchange market losses, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average already being down 1.58%, the S&P 500 down 1.78%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 2.47%.
Significant loss of U.S. and Canadian jobs, including a loss of 31,000 U.S. jobs related to the liquor industry alone.
Disproportionate detriment on Canadian imports, seeing as more than 75% of Canada's goods and service exports go to the U.S.
Sky-rocketed pricing for industries with an international supply chain, most notably the automative industry.
Decimation of goodwill and willingness to collaborate on international issues, sacrificed on the altar of "winning" a trade war.
That last point is what prompted this article. The greatest loss of any zero-sum trade war. The intangible, incalculable cost that stems from a short-sighted solution and plagues a region for generations. A fundamental, catastrophic breakdown in international relations that torpedoes any existing hope of working together in accomplishing complex and pivotal objectives.
To my fellow Americans and Canadians throughout the Detroit region, we cannot allow this animosity between our governments to contaminate the international collaboration necessary for protecting and expanding our outdoor opportunities. Our region is far, far too fragile to bear such a cost.
WHAT'S AT STAKE: WHY DETROIT'S OUTDOORS CAN'T AFFORD THE TOLL OF A TARIFF TRADE WAR
Those of us working within the Detroit region's outdoor recreation economy have had calendar year 2025 dog-eared for several years now. After years of innovative planning, careful designing, voluminous fundraising, and diligent construction, the crown jewel of Detroit's recreational ecosystem will finally be unveiled this year: the Gordie Howe International Bridge.
Beyond providing another means of linking Detroit and Windsor, this bridge will serve as the critical missing link between North America's expansive trail networks. Through connecting the 17,000 mile Trans Canada Trail directly the Michigan's Iron Belle Trail - which in turn merges into the 4,800 mile North Country Trail - the bridge's pedestrian lanes will open our continent to unprecedented recreational opportunities. A transformative ripple effect that could forever redefine living, working, and recreating within our region.
Unless, of course, we view each other as the enemy.
Industry-redefining projects like the Gordie Howe International Bridge, Great Lakes Way, and Great Lakes Waterfront Trail are only possible with notable degrees of international collaboration. These projects are intended not only to boost this corner of the Great Lakes as an internationally sought-after destination for adventure tourism, but to also protect rivers, forests, grasslands, and other fragile habitats that had been historically decimated in the name of industrialization.
That's one vision for the Detroit region's outdoor economy. The creation of a thriving, sustainable, collaborative, and truly unique binational adventure destination. A future that thousands of government agencies, nonprofit organizations, nature conservancies, large corporations, and small businesses like yours truly have been investing in for decades.
A revitalized Detroit Riverfront. A marathon crossing multiple international borders. A multi-day backpacking, canoe camping, or bikepacking adventure on an international scale.
Sadly, we already know the alternative. Nationalistic, protective policies that lead to a "tragedy of the commons" scenario whereby natural resources are utilized for their maximum, short-term use. Lax environmental regulation in the name of industry. Deemphasis on promoting outdoor recreation on a region-wide scale.
International marathons? Cross-border trail experiences? Ease of binational recreational experiences? Those favorite pastimes become exponentially more difficult to organize when we allow fear-based policies and xenophobic rhetoric to dominate our collective conscious. Worse yet, our capacity to innovate collaboratively and harness synergetic creativity all but dissipates when we start to view each other as "the other" vs. "the partner."
In the short term, this trade war will cost us in several small, tangible ways. More expensive gear. Potentially more difficult border crossings. Definitely more difficult collaboration on large scale infrastructure and environmental projects.
The ultimate danger lies in the long term. The lost opportunities that die in the wake of a trade war. Environmental initiatives left uninitiated. Innovative businesses forced to shutter. Trail connections that remain unbuilt. Recreational passions priced out by tariffs. And experiences never lived due to boycotts, grudges, and spiteful Facebook comments.
Those intangible costs are tragically immeasurable.
Fortunately, they're also avoidable.
RESIST THE RHETORIC: HOW OUTDOOR ENTHUSIASTS CAN WIN A TRADE WAR
Let's end this somber article on a high note, eh? Now that we're apparently on the verge of the "Great Trade War of 2025," we as Detroit region outdoor enthusiasts must resist the rhetoric of economic nationalism that threatens to deprive us of our recreational livelihood.
Here are 5 steps you can take during this forthcoming season of economic uncertainty to preserve our region's recreational viability:
Become an advocate, not a detractor. Utilizing your voice on social media or elsewhere to demand action and resolution from those responsible for enacting protectionist economic policies is commendable. Utilizing the same voice to further divisive rhetoric or suppress local business is detrimental.
Support your local outfitter. Rising manufacturing prices will inevitably hit the retail sector as a whole, but especially "niche" industries like outdoor outfitters. Future you will thank you for utilizing your dollars for preserving your local outdoor industry.
Keep exploring - especially across the border. During the coming days, our governments will inevitably attempt to perpetuate an "us vs. them" agenda. Resist such fear tactics. Dare to plan a day trip to "the other side" and discover for yourself how beautiful it truly is.
Care for your local outdoor destinations. Public funding may become scarce in the event of a prolonged trade war. So, as the weather warms up and our trails become more accessible, pack along a trash bag and complement your hike with a stewardship mission.
Harness the power of your dollar and vote. In a modern democracy, our purchasing power and voting capacity constitute the most profound means of effectuating change. If a politician or company appear to be supporting protectionist, xenophobic, or divisive policies, then utilize one or both of the aforementioned tools against them until they change course.
Friends, we'll make it through this next chapter. We just need to remember to keep our long-term, collective priorities - especially the protection and expansion of our region's world-class outdoors - above short-term fear mongering and uncertainty.
Let's keep exploring.
Well put and thought provoking. Thanks for engaging the discussion.
I agree!