Mike Sardina can measure the cost of U.S. foreign policy with his ears.

“Yeah, the sound of not having French being spoken,” Sardina said from behind the bar at Parker Pie, in Glover, on a recent sunny afternoon.

The popular pizza restaurant in the heart of the Northeast Kingdom relies heavily on Québécois tourists who’ve enjoyed slices, pints — and poutines made with cheese curds from a nearby farm.

The ambiance, Sardina said, has been sadly monolingual this summer.

“It’s just a different type of buzz in the air when those folks are here,” he said. “That is palpably not here this summer.”

Neither is the cash those Canadian patrons would pump into the local economy. Anne Eldridge, who’s owned Parker Pie since 2019, said revenues at the restaurant are down by about 20% compared to last

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