From switching up groceries to relocating weddings, Canadians are looking to spend their cash outside of the U.S.
Driving the news: With U.S. tariffs still hanging over the heads of Canadian consumers, savvy shoppers have been sharing homegrown alternatives to popular U.S. products. Others are boycotting American companies, and, in some cases, visiting the U.S.
Zoom out: While provinces mostly dropped retaliations after the tariff pause, New Brunswick liquor stores are still refraining from buying any new U.S. products, while Newfoundland launched a buy local campaign, placing signs and logos in stores for locally made products.
Why it matters: University of Toronto economics professor Daniel Trefler told Global News that buying local products will help keep Canadian manufacturers and farmers in business. Even if the tariff war blows over, it could still result in long-term efforts to buy Canadian.
- Before this, consumer interest in buying local had fallen, at least for food, with purchases of local foodstuffs and willingness to pay more for them down in 2023.
Big picture: Canada-U.S. trade relations may never fully recover, or at least as long as Trump’s in office. As former Canadian Chamber of Commerce CEO Perrin Beatty told the Globe and Mail, “We simply can’t count on the goodwill of the U.S. administration.”—QH