Since taking office just over a month ago, President Donald Trump has threatened punishing tariffs against Canadian and Mexican imports and continues his chatter about making Canada the fifty-first state.
The result, especially north of the border, has been a dramatic pushback from average Canadians.
They’re giving up their plans to vacation in the US, they’re reading labels more thoroughly so they can ‘buy Canadian’ products, or those made elsewhere, instead of those made in the US, and they’re uniting in their pride as Canadians like never before.
However, nowhere was the ignition of national pride more evident than in last week’s hockey game final between Canada and the U.S.
When Connor McDavid scored in sudden death overtime during the championship game of the Four Nations Faceoff, played in Boston, Canadians in the stands and their sports bars and living rooms roared to their feet, bursting with emotion as Canada beat the U.S. 3 to 2.
“Yeah to heck with the fifty-first state stuff. It is probably bigger than even the players imagine. On the ice, they’re just worried about representing Canada, but the fans have really grabbed on to this,” a Canadian sports fan said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on social media, posted “You can’t take our country, and you can’t take our game,” a sentiment echoed from coast to coast to coast. The Oval Office remained silent.
It wasn’t just a game – it was a geo-political battle pitching David, Canada, against a mighty Goliath, America. And it’s serious. Most Canadians feel as if their very existence as a country is at stake, and many of those fans could have their jobs and finances threatened if Trump acts. Some are already being laid off as CEOs shore up their companies' lines in anticipation of the tariffs.
Canadians aren’t just taking a hard look at how they earn their money, but how they spend it too.
A new Angus Reid survey suggests that 78 percent of Canadians are making a concerted effort to buy more Canadian products-others say they will boycott or delay travel to the US-and they’re buying and displaying the Canadian flag in record numbers.
“It’s just to show support for good Canadian businesses and for Canadian companies and against all that’s going on,” a Canadian boycotter said.
Many restaurant and bar owners are switching to Canadian products, even if it is costing them more, such as restaurant owners like Evan Thompson in Saskatchewan.
“All our pork, chicken, beef all that’s Canadian. All of our cheese is Canadian, we’re having a bit of a tough time with our vegetables because I mean it hits minus 50 most of the time here in the winter. Yeah, we’re hoping to switch to Mexican products,” Thompson said.
The sentiment is also the same for Donald Wingell in Ottawa.
“I do all my shopping, whether it’s vegetables fruits, locally. I stopped going into the big suppliers like Sysco and Costco. And I’m more focused on going into our Canadian stores. Most of our US wines are replaced by either Canadian wines, European wines, or world wines. And we don’t serve any American beers,” Wingell said.
Canadian grocers are also looking for produce from countries other than the US and they’re doing more to highlight homegrown products. Sylvain Charlebois of Dalhousie University says a back-and-forth trade war will hurt.
“On the Canadian side if we do retaliate, expect the fresh products to be impacted first. Again, whether it’s tariffs or the dollar. The dollar is actually holding on right now at 70 cents vs the US dollar. Well, that’s good, but it could fall. If it does fall, we could actually see a double whammy, affecting fresh produce, in particular, some meat products, and frozen products. Those are the categories we’re watching very closely,” Charlebois said.
Many Canadians are reconsidering their travel plans to the US. Statistics Canada says more than 20 million Canadians travel to the US each year, and the American Travel Association is expecting the numbers to drop this year.
“We really don’t want to spend our money there, at the moment// I mean, we’re Canadian we should be supporting Canadians at the moment.//We’re not being appreciated at the moment.//My husband and I said NO we do not want to go any more//If this goes through, the tariffs, I can’t for the life of me accept going there and spending our hard-earned money,” a plethora of Canadian travelers said.
It’s estimated that Canadian travelers spend about 20 billion dollars a year in the US. Some say they’re even willing to forego refunds or bookings.
Corey Fram is with the Thousand Islands Interim Tourism Council; he says that the tourism industry is expected to take a hit.
“It really has an economic impact in terms of visitors who are coming,” Fram said. “To cut that back by something as high as ten percent is very concerning. It doesn’t really align with what our value system is here in a binational kind of a place like the Thousand Islands.”
Another recent survey, this time from Leger, shows that Canadians are willing to bear the impacts of a trade war. 70 percent of Canadians support dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs on the US.
Analysts say it’s a sign that Canadians are angry enough that they are willing to protect their sovereignty from Trump’s annexation threats – even though it will hurt their wallets.
During the Four Nations Faceoff Final, Canadian singer Chantal Kreviazuk even slightly changed the lyrics to the national anthem O Canada, it was to protest Trump’s continued rhetoric about annexing the country. Instead of the words “All of us to command”, she sang, “That only us command”. She wrote “In this very peculiar and potentially consequential moment, I truly believe we must stand up, use our voices and try to protect ourselves and express our outrage in the face of any abuses of power.”