Maine And Canada’s Border Communities Feel Unique Impacts Of The Coronavirus Pandemic

Along Maine’s border with Canada, communities on either side are closely connected, historically, culturally, economically. (Robbie Feinberg/Maine Public)

Along Maine’s border with Canada, communities on either side are closely connected, historically, culturally, economically. But the COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily severed that connection, as the governments of the two countries have suspended nonessential travel along the border.

As part of Maine Public’s series “Deep Dive: Coronavirus,” Robbie Feinberg visited one border town to see how lives and livelihoods are being affected.

Gary Theriault hops off his motorcycle and walks into the Madawaska Tastee-Freez, a roadside ice cream and takeout stand just a short hop from the Canadian border. As he waits for his milkshake, Theriault peers across the St. John River towards Edmundston, New Brunswick, less than a mile away. He says these communities have long been connected, by their mutually dependent economies, and shared heritage.

Read the rest of this story at Maine Public’s website.