Guest column: How trade wars take high toll on mental health

Article content

Windsor’s manufacturing industry is facing tariff turmoil and mental health support must keep up.

Uneasy is settling in Canada. You can hear it in the tense conversations in the grocery store, and you can feel it in your belly when another news alert flashes on your phone.

We have all been watching a mixed, yet another trade war unfold, feeling powerless as the economy sways under the weight of political unpredictability.

Article content

With each blow to our collective sense of stability, the pressure tightens the grip. This uncertainty will not only shake the market. It shakes people. It keeps them awake at night, increases anxiety, and often brings quiet, devastating losses to mental health.

This is Windsor’s keen damage.

A border city built on manufacturing, Windsor is a well-known leader in the United States, sending trouble long before the rest of Canada felt the impact. The financial collapse of 2008 put Windsor’s auto industry in a dilemma, shutting down assembly lines and erasing thousands of jobs.

The Covid-19 pandemic followed, causing too many lives and destroying small businesses that rely on cross-border transportation. Now, tariffs and trade instability may cause similar damage again.

However, while Windsor may be on the frontline, the data makes it clear: the crisis is nationwide.

Article content

Mental health problems are soaring across the country. New research from the Canadian Mental Health Research (MHRC) shows that nearly half of Canadians are driven by political uncertainty and rising costs. 42% say financial stress is affecting their well-being, up from 35% in December. They are worried that they will not be able to pay their bills.

Anxiety spreads rapidly, and the MHRC shows that tensions in the United States and Canada are now the second highest source of stress among Canadians, second only to the cost of living.

However, despite this clear link between economic instability and mental health, too many Canadians are struggling alone. During difficult times, the discussion of economic recovery rarely touches on the psychological impact of financial stressors on Canadians. Meanwhile, many people are bound by cost, stigma or simply not knowing the turn.

Article content

Canadians deserve better.

Now, more than ever, we have to provide mental health access to our most vulnerable people, and we must support the well-being of our communities, especially those with the biggest impact of economic transformations like Windsor.

After all, these are communities that support our nation’s economy. The business community in Canada can and must make a citation on the grounds of return.

As a nonprofit company, founded in 1957, we believe we have a responsibility to help the community. This prompts us to provide free treatment for Canadians struggling with stress and anxiety in this unpredictable economy.

It’s time for business leaders and policy makers nationwide to step up their investment in the mental health of Canadians at the local level.

Because in the end, we can’t control the trade war.

We cannot decide on economic policies.

Article content

We cannot silence threats and speech from the border.

But we can show the power of community unity. Because Canadians help Canadians.

No one initiative is enough. But if we acknowledge emotional loss of economic uncertainty, then if we prioritize mental health in a way that prioritizes financial recovery, then we will not only help each other; we have built a stronger, more resilient Canada.

Zahid Salman is the president and CEO of Greenshield, a Windsor-based nonprofit health and welfare company that also invests in health and wellbeing support for underserved Canadians.

Article content