- Canadians are angry over Trump’s tariff threats and 51st-state comments.
- In response, they’re abandoning US consumer brands in favor of locally-made alternatives.
- The country’s largest retailer said sales of Canadian goods are up by double digits.
In response to President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and comments about adopting the 158-year-old nation as the 51st US state, Canadians are hitting back with a bit of economic populism of their own.
“Every single person I meet, they want help and guidance how they can buy more Canadian products, and we’re really trying to do everything we can to help them,” Loblaw Companies CEO Per Bank said on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call last month. Loblaw, which owns several grocery and pharmacy brands, is the largest retailer in Canada.
In a LinkedIn comment a week before the call, Bank said sales of products prepared in Canada were up double digits in the second week of February, especially in grocery, dairy, and frozen sections as shoppers were “already in a patriotic state of mind.”
The sentiment goes well beyond the grocery aisles.
“It’s a combination of we’re hurt and angry,” said Mike Moffatt, a former economic adviser to Justin Trudeau, in an interview with Scott Galloway published last week. “Weirdly, we’re actually more we’ve come together more as a country. I think we are less divided than we have been in probably a decade here.”
Moffatt noted that Canada is significantly more dependent on foreign trade than the US is, and that new tariffs — as well as any retaliatory tariffs — would create a host of supply chain challenges and new price increases.
Trump said Monday that Canada had “no room left” to avoid the tariffs.
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Canadians aren’t mincing words about how they’re feeling and what they hope to accomplish with their next grocery run.
“I’m a little bit horrified. I’m very scared,” Pearl Whamond, a nurse who has lived in Montreal all her life, told Business Insider. She said she’s personally witnessed an outpouring of Canadian patriotism even in Quebec, a primarily French-speaking province that is not typically considered very patriotic.
“If Quebec is pissed off enough to become nationalistic and fly the Canadian flag, something’s really wrong,” she said.
Whamond is among the many Canadians who are trying to boycott American companies in favor of Canadian ones. She said her local Facebook groups are full of people asking for Canadian alternatives to specific products and brands.
She personally hasn’t shopped at Amazon in nearly a month — despite her husband previously referring to her as the “Amazon queen” — and is also avoiding brands like McDonald’s and Walmart.
Another Canadian based in Alberta who asked to remain anonymous for fear of political backlash, told BI he also has been trying to avoid buying American products, opting for goods made in any other country but especially Canada when it’s feasible.
“Patriotism is definitely way up,” he said. “I feel like we’re actually a united front as Canadians. We’re collectively rejecting the divisive rhetoric that has led to all this.”
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The renewed patriotism even spilled out onto the ice during the final game of the Four Nations Face Off hockey tournament, which replaced the otherwise sleepy NHL All Star Game.
After the US handed Canada a decisive defeat in their round-robin match-up, Canada returned with a vengeance in the final to win a sudden-death overtime victory on par with the Olympics or the Stanley Cup.
“You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game,” Trudeau posted on X.
It’s a mood that has more Canadians reaching for Crown Royal over Maker’s Mark.
