Mariani from substack

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Let's Play Bridge

The stupid version where everybody loses

Frank MarianiJul 21, 2025

This week, I address a local topic that echoes the border town theme I’ve used before. This one, however, depicts a spin I would never have imagined a year ago.

Tariffs be damned and don’t get off my lawn!

Trump’s erratic on-again, off-again tariff impositions on Canada are the macro version of a man putting up a spite fence for no other reason than to flex his muscles over his long-time, friendly, and cooperative neighbor. Oh, DJT claims it is about fair trade, but the only parameter he sees is dollars. Economic relations are not just about the numbers, especially with an ally that shares the longest undefended border in the world, stretching approximately 5,525 miles.

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My next-door neighbor is retired from the lawnmowing and snow plowing service business. Yet, he still takes his professional lawn edging skills to my yard because he likes to see a continuous clean line from house to house. I do my best to return the favor when the Lake Erie snow machine dumps its load on us, because he has a snow thrower and I have a two-stage snow blower. Such snowfalls are not a weekly event, though. Talk about an unfair balance of services!

Lately, he’s been under the weather, and I’ve had the satisfaction of cutting both of our lawns before he has a chance to do the same. The point of this friendly neighbor parable is the value of mutual respect, understanding our history, and weighing the long-term consequences of confrontation. Think before you act.

Earlier bordercrossing woes

During the COVID-19 pandemic, relations between the US and Canada were largely cooperative regarding vaccination policy and curtailed social interaction. Essential travel was permitted, but the definition of “essential” was up for debate in this cartoon from November 7, 2020.

CBSA = Canada Border Services Agency
ASFC =Agence des services frontaliers du Canada

Less than a year later, on June 26, 2021, I employed a looser, more painterly style to illustrate my thoughts on the discrepancy between US and Canadian travel restrictions.

A few months later, on September 25, 2021, I created a spoof on how Canadian visitors, who were allowed to travel by air to the US, could circumvent the ban on automobile crossings at the Niagara River.

I followed up shortly after with another editorial cartoon that went to press on November 6, 2021. Suffering American restaurants and retailers who had built much of their enterprises on Canadian purchasing power were ready with open arms to resume business. It’s ideal when a newspaper’s opinion column complements the cartoon and vice versa.