'It's costing us' Tariffs bite in a border town that voted for Trump

There are few entities that embody the close, fraternal ties between the US and Canada quite like the Saginaw Spirit junior ice hockey team.

- Stephen Starr

In a place whose fortunes have been more down than up in recent decades, the Dow Event Center hockey arena in Saginaw, Michigan, comes alive with more than 5,000 fans once these young stars take to the ice. A huge banner depicting the players adorns the main street into the city.

Nearly all the players, aged 16 to 20, come from Canada and stay with local Saginaw families during the regular playing season, which runs from September to April.

“They are family, almost literally,” said Jimmy Greene, the Spirit's vice-president of marketing and community relations, “because players come over here and stay with American families. It's more than just sport.”

One of the top prospects of this year's National Hockey League entry draft is forward Michael Misa, the Spirit's 18-year-old Canadian captain. Last year, the Saginaw Spirit won the Memorial Cup of the Canadian Hockey League for the first time. In the season that recently finished, the Spirit played 28 times on Canadian soil.

So the fallout from Donald Trump's tariffs regime on Canadian goods has been felt more keenly in Saginaw than most other communities.