On Maine’s doorstep, residents of N.B.’s Campobello Island feel abandoned in time of trade crisis [Video]

Valerie Mabey has lived on New Brunswick’s Campobello Island most of her life, but these days, it isn’t easy. 

Islanders have become unwitting victims of U.S. President Donald Trump’s effort to reshape the international trading system.

Cross-border relationships have frayed, and Canadians on this 14-kilometre-long outpost in the Bay of Fundy feel isolated and vulnerable.

“We don’t have a gas station here. We don’t have a bank here,” Mabey said. “We’re pretty isolated, and it’s hard to try to drive an hour to get to your own country.”

Because of geography, many of Campobello’s 1,000 or so residents rely heavily on crossing the bridge into the nearest town — Lubec, Maine — for gas, groceries and necessities. 

But residents are now being charged 25 per cent in …