Americans living in Ontario are expressing relief after Democratic victories in the U.S. midterm elections, while cautioning that rebuilding trust between Canada and the United States will take time, CBC reports.

Lucia Lloyd, a Virginia native who moved to Canada in 2019 and now serves as an Anglican priest in Bowmanville, told CBC’s Sharif Hassan she hopes the results will constrain President Donald Trump’s powers and help repair relations.

“I do feel a huge sense of relief,” Lloyd said.

She said she has been horrified by Trump’s trade war with Canada and comments about annexing the country. But she understands why Canadians may remain distrustful of their neighbour despite the election outcome.

“There’s a lot of work still to be done. I think it’s going to take a long time,” she said.

In Peterborough, Ohio-born dual citizen Kate Kitchen also welcomed the Democrats’ wins in the House and Senate. She told CBC she stayed awake past midnight Tuesday watching results, including those from Ohio, where she had mailed her ballot and checked that it was received and counted.

Kitchen said she was optimistic about the countries’ long-term economic and cultural relationship, though she expected Canadians’ distrust to persist in the near term.

Matthew Lebo, a Western University political scientist in London who studies U.S. politics, offered a more guarded assessment. He told CBC that several more elections would be needed to judge the direction of American politics.

Lebo said Democrats could push back against tariffs on Canadian goods, but the administration negotiating with Canada would remain unchanged.

“It’s going to be a very confrontational two years … within the American government and maybe still between Canada and the U.S.,” he said.

Sources