A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Campobello Island is just off the coast of Maine. It's part of Canada, but its only bridge to the mainland runs to the U.S. Now new political tensions have some in the small community worried. Here's Maine Public's Ari Snider.
ARI SNIDER, BYLINE: On Campobello, evidence of the deep ties between Canada and the U.S. is hard to miss. Jon Southern is superintendent of the Roosevelt Campobello International Park, the island's primary tourist attraction and home to FDR's stately oceanfront summer cottage.
JON SOUTHERN: If this was in the time of FDR and Eleanor, you would have seen well over a hundred sailing vessels, trading ships, all going back and forth freely.
SNIDER: The home itself is within eyeshot of the U.S., less than 2 miles of ocean separated from Eastern Maine. The border, an invisible line in the water. FDR once called that border, quote, "the noblest monument to peace and to neighborly economic and social friendship in all the world." Southern says it was first lady Eleanor Roosevelt's idea to preserve the site as an international park, jointly funded, staffed, and administered by the two countries.
SOUTHERN: This could be not only a memorial to FDR, but also a symbol of the friendship, unity and mutual respect between the two nations.
SNIDER: And Southern believes the Park's message can help to light a path beyond this low point in U.S.-Canada relations.
SOUTHERN: To show that as people, we're stronger than that - we're stronger than political divide.
SNIDER: But some islanders are offended by President Trump's tariffs and repeated comments about making Canada the 51st state.
STEPHANIE GOFF: We don't take it lightly that the president of the most powerful nation in the world jokes or not jokes - who knows? - about, you know, invading our country. Like, that's not cool.
SNIDER: Librarian Stephanie Goff (ph) says she's trying to support a Canadian boycott of American products. But Goff says that's easier said than done because so many of Campobello's 900 or so residents regularly cross the bridge into Maine for gas, groceries and medical appointments.
GOFF: We are vulnerable here because we have no way - most of the year on and off the island, unless we travel through the United States.
SNIDER: Recognizing the island's unique geography, the Canadian government has carved out a limited tariff exemption for year-round residents who bring household goods back from the U.S. But lifelong islander Dale Calder (ph) says the political uncertainty alone has fueled a new sense of urgency to establish year-round ferry service to Canada.
DALE CALDER: Some people who were either silent or opposed or whatever prior to all this happening, or - come around saying, boy, it would be nice to be able to get to our own country.
SNIDER: Calder made a career working at Campobello's small border checkpoint and says the confrontational stance of the Trump administration marks an entirely new chapter in the island's history.
CALDER: We're just so astonished at what has happened since January until now. How bad can it get?
SNIDER: But not all Campobello residents are so concerned.
DIANA PARKER: I don't feel any different with U.S. than I have for 30 years.
SNIDER: Diana Parker (ph) runs a small beachside restaurant on Campobello. She also serves in municipal government, but as a service industry veteran on an island buffeted by the political currents of two countries, she says her job is to leave politics at home. And librarian Stephanie Goff says she's holding out hope that here at the far end of the longest international border on Earth, the ties that bind across the water will endure.
GOFF: Here on Campobello, we're more than just neighbors. We're blood. The sooner we get back to that, the better.
SNIDER: But for now, she says the rift is too big to ignore. She's already canceled an annual camping trip to Maine to avoid spending money in the U.S., saying she'll visit somewhere in Canada instead.
For NPR News, I'm Ari Snider on Campobello Island, New Brunswick.
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