‘It’s a sick feeling’: N.B. border town mayor worried about impact of U.S. tariffs

CTV’s Todd Battis interviews St. Stephen, N.B., Mayor Allan MacEachern about the impact of the U.S. tariffs on both side of the border.

Allan MacEachern has spent much of his life on the New Brunswick-Maine border, enjoying a tight connection with his American neighbours, but for the first time he feels a division between the two communities.

“We’re so intertwined,” MacEachern told CTV News Atlantic’s Todd Battis during an interview on Tuesday. “I don’t like the divide it’s creating.”

MacEachern is the mayor for St. Stephen, the New Brunswick town located next to Calais, Maine. The two towns share many things, including fire services, but MacEachern fears the new U.S. tariffs on Canadian imports have thrown a wrench into that unity.

“We’re all going to hurt from this,” he said. “Hopefully our counterparts on the other side will start talking to the right people over there. Once it affects them and their pocket books, that’s the only way we’ll see through this.”

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs took effect, along with a 10 per cent levy on energy. St. Stephen often sees heavy traffic at its border crossing, but MacEachern said it’s already slowed down.

Beyond the economic impacts, MacEachern said the sense of division between Calais and St. Stephen is hard to stomach.

“It’s a sick feeling,” he said. “I consider Calais part of my hometown. It always feels like my community.

“We’re two halves of a circle.”

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