By Action Canada Fellow James Chan ‘23
Following our last study tour in Northern Canada, it was a safe assumption that our next destination would be south of the 60th parallel – but nobody guessed it would be the southernmost part of the country.
Windsor was a bit of a surprising choice at first; even those of us from Southern Ontario haven’t spent much time there. Like me, you might only know Windsor from its reputation as a blue-collar rust belt city, still recovering from the latest in a long history of boom-bust cycles. It’s a story that many Canadian communities are familiar with, especially those who have developed around a single, dominant industry that competes in (and is dependent on) a globalized market.
One of the aims of the Action Canada Fellowship is to illustrate the complexity of policymaking in a country as vast and varied as Canada. Even if sustainable transportation was not the theme of this year’s Fellowship, you can hardly find a more suitable place than Windsor (and neighbouring Essex County) to witness this complexity in the real world. This study tour gave me a greater understanding and appreciation of how the implications and consequences of policy choices and decisions, from municipal to international, can reach beyond just the day-to-day realities of local residents to affect our collective social and economic prosperity.

A mural in downtown Windsor, celebrating a place that many have heard of, but does not technically exist. (All photos by the author.)
They say that change is the only constant. Windsor-Essex is a place that has always been in transition, shaped over generations by policy decisions made somewhere else, be it Parliament Hill or Auburn Hills. Fear of loss – of culture, identity, jobs – is constant; the memories of the last economic downturn are always fresh. And ever since the international border was established in the middle of the Detroit River, it has had to fight for its interests in the shadow of a larger and more influential neighbour.
Windsor-Essex is the traditional territory of the Anishinaabek (specifically the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa of the Three Fires Confederacy) and home to many other First Nations, including the Haudenosaunee, Chonnonton/Attawandaron, and Huron peoples. Colonization started with the French, who established their earliest permanent settlement west of Montréal in the area. That history remains hidden in plain sight today amongst the names of numerous streets, towns, and rivers, including Detroit – from “le détroit du Lac Érié”, or “the strait of Lake Erie.” The influx of British Loyalists after the American Revolution, and its strategic location on the frontlines of the War of 1812, cemented its transition from French to English influence, most visibly in the present names of Windsor and neighbouring Essex County.
The Windsor-Essex area has also long served as a landing spot for people who, whether by choice or due to forced displacement, come seeking peace and opportunity for themselves and their families. The region provided sanctuary for over 50,000 Black refugees escaping slavery in the 1800s. Windsor was also one of the first cities in Canada to organize a response to the Indochinese refugee crisis, eventually welcoming over 2,000 “boat people” in the 1970s and 80s.

“The Gateway to Freedom” commemorating Detroit as a terminal of the Underground Railroad. The figures are looking across the river to Windsor, where the “Tower of Freedom” by the same artist is located.
Today, more than 1,400 asylum seekers have been welcomed, sheltered, and cared for in Windsor, with many from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East who are reviving Francophone culture and language in the area. They join over 1,000 newcomers a month, from skilled immigrants choosing Windsor as their home to international students coming to study at St. Clair College and the University of Windsor. These newcomers, the lifeblood of our economic growth, are at the mercy of federal immigration, refugee, and border policies, provincial healthcare and higher education policies, and municipal social service and housing policies.
Even more invisible and vulnerable are the innumerable migrant workers from South and Central America who provide hard, manual labour on farms and greenhouses in Essex Country that keeps our produce affordable and accessible year-round. Faced with language barriers and a dearth of services, transportation options, and legal rights, they rely on informal networks of advocacy groups, charitable citizens, and peers to survive; many do not make it back home.
The policies underpinning this pillar of our economy is currently overshadowed by another – the generational transformation that is underway just 50 kilometres from the greenhouses of Leamington, where Windsor’s single remaining auto manufacturing plant is being retooled for electric vehicles, and the traditionally blue-collar auto industry is remaking itself for a high-tech future.
At the time of writing, Windsor is in the news because a European/American and South Korean joint venture is facing political backlash for planning to bring in up to 1,600 temporary workers to build and set up one of Canada’s first large-scale manufacturing plants for electric vehicle batteries, much to the indignation of local skilled tradespeople and their unions. This factory is being built on land that was made available by the local municipality and its economic development agency, and heavily subsidized by the provincial and federal governments, which helped it win out over competing U.S. jurisdictions armed with their own hefty subsidies and incentives.
There is perhaps no greater (or timelier) example to reinforce how the area’s economic opportunities, fortunes, and destinies are precariously dependent on the complex web of the environmental and economic policies of various governments, global geopolitics and corporate deals between trading partners, and the advocacy and collective bargaining power of labour unions.

The chassis of a Chrysler Pacifica PHEV featuring an internal combustion engine and an electric motor and battery, representing the past and future of Stellantis’s Windsor Assembly Plant and Canada’s automotive industry.
In many ways, the story of Windsor-Essex is similar to the story of Canada, in that it’s one with many layers, where the struggle to define and hold on to culture and identity is a recurring theme, a narrative where the line between hero and villain is not always clear cut, and is highly dependent on who wrote it and who gets to tell it.
And just like Canada, Windsor’s story is far from complete. And while you might think you’ve heard this story before, its next chapter – and its leading characters – may surprise you. Where they come from, the tools they wield to make a living, and the prominent and invisible ways they contribute to our country (and how in turn they are affected by its policies) will be different from what we’re used to. Policymakers, and indeed all of us who are impacted by those policies, would be well served to spend more time in places like Windsor-Essex to witness this unfolding story first-hand.

The University of Windsor’s Continuing Education building in downtown Windsor, where the tension between the past and the future is ever-present.
On behalf of the Action Canada Fellowship, the author wishes to express our gratitude to everyone who generously shared their time, stories, and perspectives with us during our study tour, including leaders and representatives from le Centre Communautaire Francophone Windsor-Essex-Kent, the City of Windsor’s Poet Laureate & Storytellers Program, Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative, Invest WindsorEssex, Stellantis and the Windsor Assembly Plant, Unifor, Unity Hopeful, the Windsor Detroit Bridge Authority, and the many residents we were privileged to meet on public transit, in neighbourhoods and parks, and through the YMCA Windsor Learning Centre.

Featured Fellow
James works with business, government, and community partners to understand the root causes of our complex challenges, and to shift our entrenched behaviours, cultures, and policies to create long-term change. His current professional and volunteer roles are focused on changing how investment and philanthropic capital can be directed in different ways in the pursuit of social equity and justice.
Outside of work, James is an outdoors enthusiast, rec league athlete, and couch potato in roughly equal measures.