According to a new poll by Petro-Canada, done in partnership with the Harris Poll, Canadians are changing their buying decisions in the wake of U.S. tariff threats against Canadian products.
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The Live by the Leaf Index found that 94% of Canadians say it’s important to buy Canadian and support Canadian companies, including 75% who say it is extremely or very important to do so.
Across all ages, genders, provinces, and income levels, 93% or greater say it is important for them to buy Canadian and support Canadian companies.
The poll found Canadian consumers are willing to pay a premium (76%) and/or travel further (64%) to support local brands, while 72% would wait longer for a product to be delivered or become available in order to buy Canadian.
The study says 9-in-10 Canadians (90%) say they take pride in buying Canadian, across all ages, genders, regions, and income levels, and regardless of demographic group, at least 84% express this pride.
However, 93% of Canadians say it can be difficult to tell which companies and products are truly Canadian but 8-in-10 (79%) say that in the past week they have taken additional steps to buy Canadian, including 1-in-3 (34%) who have substituted a product they otherwise would have bought with a Canadian product.
Efforts to buy Canadian seem highest in the grocery sector however well over one-half of respondents say they are putting efforts forth to ensure they are buying or consuming Canadian including grocery stores (67%), grocery products (67%), news sources (64%), gasoline (62%), sit-down or fast-casual restaurants (60%), non-grocery stores (58%), online retailers (57%), and fast food (55%).
The poll found 82% of Canadians say they are willing to try new brands as opposed to ones they normally buy to spend their money on Canadian products and more than half (53%) say that in the past week they have discussed buying Canadian with friends or family.
The Harris Poll, conducted from Feb. 7-9, on behalf of Petro-Canada, was done with 1,529 Canadians aged 18+ online.