When One Door Closed on Canada, These Americans Shoved Another Open

Washington has spent a year and a half picking on our northern ally. But at one little library on the border, the friendship persisted in the face of it all.

Hey everyone, happy Sunday. Who’s ready for some good news?

If you paid attention to politics this week, or anytime over the past 18 months, you’ve probably noticed new feelings towards a neighbor of ours. Once among America’s closest allies, Canada rarely goes long nowadays without hearing threats from our leaders in Washington.

But this Sunday I want to take you for a peek beyond the rhetoric. Because for those who actually live there, the words of our politicians are far from the full picture.

Ever since it opened in 1904, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House has been no ordinary building. On one side of the black tape running under its bookshelves, visitors stand in Vermont. But one step to the other side, and you cross into Quebec.

It was built this way on purpose, to symbolize the friendship between our two nations. And for over a century, that friendship allowed Canadians to walk freely across our border to reach the library’s only entrance, which happened to be on the American side. There was no customs line, and they didn’t need a passport. They were just neighbors walking into their neighborhood library.

Then last year, the Trump administration ended the arrangement. New rules meant Canadians could no longer walk right up to the door their great-grandparents used. Instead, they had to drive to a port of entry and wait in line. Just to go to the library down the road.

Overnight, the friendliest door on the border was closed. But not for long.

As the library’s story gained attention, it started to receive donations from all over the place. Not just from Vermont and Quebec, but from people across both countries who had never even seen the building. And despite the new entry restrictions, the library saw more visitors than ever as the community rallied its support. Just listen to how much it meant to the people involved.

Within weeks the library had six figures in hand, so they decided to convert an old emergency exit into a real entrance on the Canadian side. Officials and neighbors from both countries crowded into the ribbon cutting last month, and Canadians finally walked into their library again. One longtime American volunteer was just happy that “our Canadians have a decent access” again.

“Our Canadians.” Almost a hundred and twenty-five years of friendship. At the ceremony, one of Vermont’s statewide officials reminded everyone how important that friendship is to maintain.

Obviously, the new door does not make everything right. The whole point of that building, for a century, was one shared door. Nobody on either side of it pretends otherwise.

But while our government spent a year picking a fight with Canada, the Americans who live next door to Canadians were busy trying to fix what Washington broke. When somebody shut the door on their friends, they gave everything they could to build a new one.

The fight in Washington is loud, but it will pass. The friendship is quiet, and it’s lasted over a century. My money is on the friendship.

That, my friends, is good news for your Sunday.

— Adam