Canadians push back on Trump tariffs by ditching American goods and services
The U.S. exports roughly half of Canada’s total fruit, nut and vegetable imports, by value, according to 2019 Statistics Canada data. A shopper pushes a cart at a grocery store in Hamilton, Ont. on Feb. 2.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs started a wave of patriotic pushback this weekend from Canadians declaring that they were swapping American items off their shopping lists and cancelling their subscriptions to leading streaming services.
Mr. Trump’s plan to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian goods starting Tuesday has prompted fears of an economic shock that will throw hundreds of thousands out of work. The federal government immediately responded with retaliatory tariffs as political leaders urged the public to shop local and cancel holidays in the United States.
Some Canadians appeared eager to take up the call, taking to social media on Sunday to trade tips for shopping local and share lists of alternatives for their favourite American products.
Joey Alfano said he had already been doing online research to help him root out American items from ending up in his kitchen. Mr. Alfano, a 28-year-old construction worker who was out shopping Sunday at Ottawa’s downtown Rideau Centre mall, said looking at how he can change his spending was his way to respond to Mr. Trump, whom he characterized as acting purely out of self-interest.
“If I have to do a little bit of legwork to know what’s made in Canada, I’ll just look it up, within reason, I guess,” he said.
Kevin Vickers, a former House of Commons sergeant-at-arms who once helped stop an armed gunman who was attacking Parliament Hill, told followers on social media that he was committing to only buying Canadian goods and ditching Amazon – even though the monster retailer is convenient for residents of his rural area of New Brunswick – as well as substituting his morning cup of freshly-squeezed Florida oranges for domestic apple juice.
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“And I know those Prime, Netflix, Disney movies are made in Vancouver but off with their heads (subscriptions) too,” Mr. Vickers posted on X, the social-media platform owned by close Trump adviser Elon Musk. “Lent came early this year. I am just so mad.”
Ottawa released an extensive list on Sunday of 25-per-cent retaliatory tariffs that are set to come into force Tuesday on hundreds of American goods, including chicken, lemons, wine, refrigerators and motorcycles.
Canada will retaliate against President Donald Trump’s new tariffs with 25% levies on a raft of U.S. imports, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Feb. 1, warning Americans that Trump’s actions would have real consequences for them.
Reuters
There were similar calls for boycotts in 2018 after Mr. Trump, then in his first term, hit Canadian steel and aluminum with tariffs. Srabana Dasgupta, an associate professor at Simon Fraser University’s business school and an expert on consumer behaviour, said the senselessness and immense scope of Mr. Trump’s latest tariffs appear to be having a more profound effect.
“This is like just a blanket one and it seems more personal and it doesn’t seem logical – that’s why I think Canadians are reacting to it,” Dr. Dasgupta said. “It’s really affected consumer sentiment in a way that I’ve actually never seen before.”
Canadian companies are already feeling the pinch of Trump’s tariffs
She added that Canadian shoppers will likely soon notice fewer varieties of leafy greens – about 90 per cent of this produce is imported, mostly from the U.S. – in their grocery stores as these tariffs will hit perishable foods hard, especially during winter when domestic competitors can’t grow outdoors. The U.S. exports roughly half of Canada’s total fruit, nut and vegetable imports, by value, according to 2019 Statistics Canada data.
Dylan Lobo runs a website called Made in CA, launched in 2018 in response to Mr. Trump’s first round of tariffs as an online repository for how to purchase Canadian-made clothing, food, furniture, home products and kitchen items. The site was created by an Ontario teen and received lots of media coverage back then; Mr. Lobo took over the site a few years later.
Mr. Lobo, a digital media consultant, said the website’s traffic has increased 15 times over the past month amid Mr. Trump’s tariff threats, which he says have been a “wake-up call to many Canadians.”
“Most Canadians were forgetting about buying Canadian, the importance of it,” he said. “When you go in stores, it’s not even easy to find Canadian products.”
Karl Littler, a spokesperson for the Retail Council of Canada, said the tariffs may buoy Canadian manufacturers as they see reduced sales in the U.S. He said Canadian retailers already sell a wide range of domestic products, especially food and beverages, with around 70 per cent of all groceries and restaurant food being grown and processed in Canada.
Still, he cautioned, people should consider continuing to buy from U.S. companies that invest, employ and manufacture in Canada.