Home › News ›

The Fall of Windsor, Canada's Detroit

Posted by: Tim Halbur

5 August 2009 - 6:00am

The Economist reports that the collapse of Detroit's auto industry has had a ripple effect up north, particularly in Windsor, Ontario.

"FOR almost a century the fate and fortune of Windsor, Ontario, have been intertwined with those of Detroit, Michigan. General Motors (GM), Ford and Chrysler made cars on both sides of the Detroit River, sending parts and vehicles back and forth at will. Windsorites worked in the car plants, loyally bought the cars, followed American sports teams, and thought nothing of driving over the Ambassador Bridge or popping through the Detroit-Windsor tunnel for a night on the town.

So the collapse into bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler has brought Windsor down along with Detroit. A blue-collar city of 273,000 people, Windsor now has the highest jobless rate in Canada (14.4%) and faces an uncertain future."

Full Story: The humbling of Detroit North
Source: The Economist, August 4, 2009
»

Comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Windsor is south of Detroit.

Submitted by chrisinsobe on Wed, 08/05/2009 - 20:26.

By a quirk of geography, Windsor is actually almost due south of Detroit.

chrisinsobe

Bookmark and Share
“
Short of erasing existing political and jurisdictional boundaries, citizens and officials need to develop the capacity to work across boundaries according to the "problem-sheds" of the land and water issues we face in the 21st century.
”