Canadian consul general Bernardette Jordan leaves Lt. Gov. John Rodgers office while visiting the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday, Feb. 19. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for U.S.-Canada relations.
As a trade war threatens to erupt between the two nations, President Donald Trump and his allies continue to suggest the U.S. should annex it’s northern neighbor, often calling Canada the 51st state and referring to its prime minister as its governor.
On the other side of the border, meanwhile, there’s a growing movement to boycott U.S. goods and cancel travel plans to the country. A few days ago, fans in Montreal savagely booed the “Star-Spangled Banner” before a 4 Nations hockey tournament game between Canada and the U.S.
“I would say that a lot of that’s because of the 51st state comments, more so than the tariffs,” Bernadette Jordan, Canada’s Consul General in New England, told VTDigger Tuesday. “It’s disrespectful. We as a people are proud of our country.”
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Regardless of the comments coming out of the White House, though, Jordan said that, in the long term, she thought the two countries would remain close allies. “I think that our relationship has been so strong for so long,” she said. “We have so many ties.”
Canada’s top diplomat to New England was visiting the Statehouse in Montpelier to reaffirm those ties. Between a flurry of meetings with state lawmakers and officials, Jordan and her staff provided a spread in the Statehouse cafeteria, where platters of sandwiches and maple candies sat on a table marked with little Canadian flags.
That morning, Jordan had been in the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development, where she spoke with similarly flummoxed lawmakers about the tariffs Trump imposed — and then postponed — on most imports from Canada.
Now expected to go into effect March 4, the tariffs could have potentially far-reaching consequences for Vermont’s economy. Canada is Vermont’s largest trading partner, and the state imports about $2.6 billion in goods each year from Canada, exporting $680 million worth of goods in return, according to statistics provided by Jordan’s office.
“The fact that we’re even in this place I find somewhat surprising and a little bit nerve racking, quite frankly,” Jordan told committee members. “The people we’ve always been best friends with are now threatening things — it’s a concern.”
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Lawmakers told the Consul General that she was preaching to the choir.
“I think as well as you are, we’re kind of trying to understand what is going on with this relationship that we’ve grown to love,” chair Rep. Michael Marcotte, R-Coventry said. “We don’t know what’s going on.”
— Habib Sabet
In the know
The House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee unveiled a sweeping bill Wednesday morning that would make dozens of changes to the state’s election laws.
The bill would, among other measures, pilot ranked-choice voting for the 2028 U.S. presidential primary election, prohibit candidates from running in a general election under more than one political party label (such as P/D) and nix the ability for candidates to avoid filing a campaign finance disclosure if they don’t meet a certain fundraising threshold (which is, now, $500).
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House GovOps plans to spend a “very notable” amount of time working on the bill over the coming weeks, committee chair Rep. Matt Birong, D-Vergennes, said Wednesday.
— Shaun Robinson
Vermont lawmakers are considering a proposal to offload nearly all of Green Mountain Transit’s bus service outside of Chittenden County to other, nearby service providers — a move that would significantly reshape how the state’s largest public transportation agency operates.
A state consultant’s report found the plan could free up badly-needed resources at Green Mountain Transit, where financial troubles have led the agency to scale back or cut service in and around Burlington in recent months. The plan could also save the state money, the report found, while still preserving services in more rural areas.
But the proposal is facing criticism from the union that represents many of Green Mountain Transit’s drivers, which says some drivers could see a pay cut and lose many of their benefits if their jobs are transferred to a transit agency whose workplace is not organized, as has been proposed in one case.
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— Shaun Robinson
On the move
On Wednesday, Governor Phil Scott signed into law H.35 which makes permanent the separation between the small group and individual health insurance plan markets in Vermont Health Connect, the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace run by the Department of Vermont Health Access.
The two plans were separated on a temporary basis in 2021 to allow Vermonteres to take advantage of broader eligibility for federal subsidies for those buying in the individual market through the American Rescue Plan Act. Without federal action, those expanded subsidies will expire at the end of this year.
— Kristen Fountain
Visit our 2025 bill tracker for the latest updates on major legislation we are following.
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Opinion refresh
Have you ever considered writing for VTDigger’s opinion section? Can you think of anyone who should? Are you frustrated that you haven’t seen a certain point of view articulated or a certain subject tackled in our opinion pages?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, we want to hear from you.
As VTDigger seeks to continue improving its opinion section, we’re hoping to identify new voices willing to share their views on issues facing Vermont. Here’s how you can help: Fill out this form to share your suggestions of topics to cover or writers to recruit. And if you’re interested in picking up a pen yourself, check out our submission guidelines and send your work to opinion@vtdigger.org.
— VTD Editors
Corrections section
In Tuesday’s newsletter, we (editors) failed to take note of a change in the party affiliation of Rep. Troy Headrick, I-Burlington. The former Progressive/Democrat announced late last month on his campaign website that he was dropping both labels. Though Headrick said he still believes in the need for a third party in Vermont and that his values have not changed, he wrote that “inter-party dynamics are impeding my ability to build sincere and productive relationships” across the Legislature.
SHELBURNE — Norman Rockwell lived for a time in suburban New York City and died and was buried in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. But for 14 years in between, the artist spent perhaps the most prolific period of his career in Vermont creating his best-known works.
That’s how Shelburne Museum curator Carolyn Bauer sees it — and how the museum’s latest exhibition treats the artist.
“Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont,” which opens June 20 and runs through Oct. 25, displays 40 of the 175 covers Rockwell famously created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine during his time in Vermont between 1939 and 1953.
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Also on display are prints of “The Four Freedoms,” maybe his most famed works of all, which represent American ideals spelled out by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941. Paintings in the exhibition include “The Young Lady with the Shiner” and “The Tattoo Artist,” both whimsical, recognizable pieces used as covers for The Saturday Evening Post.
“It’s very accessible work and approachable,” Bauer said.
The display features the three paintings that inspired the exhibition, given to the Shelburne Museum by Rock of Ages, the Barre granite quarry and monument maker. Those Rockwell paintings filled a significant gap in the museum’s art collection, which includes works by Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Grandma Moses and Andrew Wyeth but, until recently, none by Rockwell, perhaps the best-known artist to have lived here.
“It feels like a homecoming in many regards,” Bauer said.
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Moving to southern VT, finding ‘the every American’
The exhibition frames Rockwell’s time in Vermont around the tenor of the times in America. As the Great Depression was ending, World War II was looming and the nation was growing more urban and industrialized, much of the public was yearning for greater simplicity, Bauer said.
Rockwell was among them, leaving New Rochelle north of New York City for the quietude of Arlington in southern Vermont.
He was not alone. Contemporary artists including Mead Schaeffer, John Atherton and Gene Pelham would settle in Arlington too, creating what Bauer termed “the golden illustrator days” in Vermont.
Rockwell’s art, as the 152-page hardcover catalogue accompanying the exhibition notes, shows “how Vermont itself came to embody American ideals in the national imagination.”
Rockwell and his fellow Arlington artists used each other as models in their creations. “They really would work collaboratively,” Bauer said.
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Pelham’s daughter, Melinda, is shown in the exhibition in two works: “The Babysitter,” a painting of a girl holding a crying baby that’s on loan from The Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont and an admission submission Rockwell sent to Kellogg’s of a girl clutching a cereal-laden spoon to her mouth.
Doctors, mail deliverers and shopkeepers from Arlington populated his work. Bauer said Rockwell usually gave models $5 and a can of Coca-Cola.
“He was recycling and using just about everybody in town,” Bauer said. That included himself: Rockwell added his own visage to the multiple faces in “The Gossip,” which shows him lashing out at a woman who’s started the rumor-mongering.
Bauer said Rockwell wanted to cultivate a sense of place by using Vermonters known for their austere self-reliance at the forefront of his work. He also found “the every American” ideal in town, Bauer said, though his art reflected a pronounced lack of diversity.
In later work, Rockwell would confront race and segregation as the Civil Rights Movement swept the U.S.
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“He was progressive,” Bauer said.
Inspired by paintings donated by Rock of Ages
“Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont” was inspired by the 2025 museum acquisition of a trio of Rockwell works that once hung in the Barre offices of Rock of Ages. The granite company contacted the museum asking if it could donate the paintings, Bauer said, prompting staffers to wonder momentarily, “Is this real?”
Rockwell created advertisements for Rock of Ages and gave the paintings upon which the ads were based to the company. “Kneeling Girl” from 1955, making its debut at the Shelburne Museum, takes place in front of a gravestone engraved with the name Newton.
Rock of Ages donated two versions of 1963 work “The Craftsman,” a muted draft and a more luminous final version that were first displayed at the museum last year. They depict Rock of Ages stonecutter George Seivwright working in the shadow of a memorial bearing the name “Norwell,” a portmanteau of Rockwell’s first and last names.
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Bauer called the paintings “incredible works of art that were circulated widely” in ads, brochures and pamphlets touting Rock of Ages and its world-famous Vermont granite. Though Rockwell had left Vermont for Massachusetts by the time he created those paintings, they do what Rockwell had done when he lived in Arlington — show the nation and the world what Vermont and Vermonters are capable of.
“We are just eager for our visitors to see these paintings,” Bauer said.
If you go
WHAT: “Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont”
WHEN: June 20 through Oct. 25
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WHERE: Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education, Shelburne Museum
INFORMATION: $8-$25 museum admission; free under age 5 and for active military and Shelburne Museum members. shelburnemuseum.org
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@burlingtonfreepress.com.
The National Weather Service is investigating whether a small tornado touched down in Woodstock in eastern Vermont on Thursday afternoon as intense storms swept through the area, uprooting and snapping trees, and causing structural damage.
A damage survey team is expected to assess the damage on Friday morning to confirm whether any tornadoes touched down during the severe thunderstorms, the Weather Service in Burlington, Vt., said.
The suspected tornado occurred some time between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., according to the NWS. A tight vortex, a marker for rotation, was spotted on radar, although there was no debris signature detected on radar. No tornado warnings were issued at the time.
If a tornado is confirmed to have touched down, the survey team will also determine the size, path, and intensity of the twister.
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Some of the damage left behind by what is believed to have been a tornado that touched down Thursday.Chris Markos
The last tornado to touch down in Vermont was just a couple of months ago. On April 16, 2026, an EF1 touched down in Williamstown, Vt., according to the NWS. An EF1 tornado is the second-lowest rating for twisters, according to the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which ranks them based on intensity.
Several supercells had tracked across northern New York into southern and central Vermont, producing large hail and damaging winds, and eventually spawning the tornado, which the Weather Service said was about a half-mile long and 200 yards wide at its peak. The damage survey team also found ”extensive wind damage between Ainsworth State Park and Jackson Center with estimated winds between 70 and 80 mph,“ which was caused by an accompanying microburst, the NWS said.
Large trees are seen uprooted near Staples Pond in Williamstown, Vt., in April.NWS
More than an hour after the Vermont storm, two tornado warnings were issued for southern Worcester County after a pair of tight vortexes were spotted on radar, indicating a possible tornado.
No structural or other damages were found, but storm spotters have submitted reports of a funnel cloud near the Spencer-Leicester town line.
Ken Mahan can be reached at ken.mahan@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @kenmahantheweatherman. Marianne Mizera can be reached at marianne.mizera@globe.com. Follow her @MareMizera.
It’s been nearly a year and a half since border agent David ‘Chris’ Maland was shot and killed during a traffic stop near the interstate in Coventry, Vermont. Now, a group of law enforcement officers are petitioning to dedicate a section of I-91 to him.
