Windsor’s mayor looking forward to Gordie Howe Bridge opening; he doesn’t believe Canada caved to the U.S.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge is seen from the Canadian side in Windsor, Ont., on July 8, 2026. The long-awaited international crossing is scheduled to open to traffic on July 27. (Chris Campbell/CTV Windsor)

The mayor of Windsor doesn’t believe Prime Minister Mark Carney caved to President Donald Trump.

Speaking on Mornings with Mike and Meg, Mayor Drew Dilkens says he received a lot of texts, calls, and emails over the weekend saying the prime minister caved to Trump.

But the mayor says he doesn’t see it that way.

“I’ve often said I won’t be alive, and probably my kids, if they live a normal life, won’t be alive by the time that bridge is paid off, and so there’s a lot of debt to repay, and I expect for the first 15, 20, 30 years there won’t be a lot of net proceeds to be able to put in the bank,” says Dilkens.

The prime minister defended the deal brokered between Canada and the United States to open the delayed Gordie Howe International Bridge and insists the profits split with the Americans will be minimal.

On Sunday, in an interview with CTV Calgary at the Calgary Stampede, Carney said, “The word ‘net’ does a lot of work in this. We are sharing after Canada is paid back,” when asked about the agreement.

He went on to say, “We get the revenues. Then the servicing of the costs of the bridge and paying the debt of the bridge, and then what’s left over, there’s a split of that for 15 years,” and later added, “There’s not going to be a lot of net to split.”

Dilkens says he agrees with the prime minister when he says he doesn’t think there’s going to be a lot of ‘net’ money leftover to be able to share.

“But if that’s what it took for Donald Trump to be able to step down from his own position and make it look like he got a win, so be it,” says Dilkens.

The mayor says the bridge opening is great for the entire community.

He says the community has watched the whole process play out for the better part of 25 years and watched construction happen for the last eight or nine years.

“We’ve seen the bridge rise up out of the ground,” he says. “We’ve seen the two halves meet in the middle, every where we drive in the City of Windsor, you get a great picture, a great view of the top of the bridge and it is inspiring and I think a lot of us are just waiting to see it open, waiting to drive across it for the first time.”

Housing, Communities, and Infrastructure Canada confirmed in a statement Friday night the long-awaited opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge.

Canada and Michigan have agreed to open the bridge on Monday, July 27, with the support of the U.S. government.

Over the weekend, President Trump posted on Truth Social that he was able to cut a much better deal for the United States.

Trump said in his post that the original deal was unacceptable to him but praised the new one as “great and fair.”