(Bloomberg) — In Canadian grocery stores, US-grown produce is wilting on the shelves. Local executives are scouring wine lists over dinner to avoid ordering California pinot. And in Toronto, a 73-pound Great Pyrenees-Poodle mix named Izzy is no longer allowed to eat American dog food.
As US President Donald Trump has threatened tariffs, made 51st state jabs and referred to the country’s prime minister as “Governor Trudeau,” furious Canadian consumers have turned into vindictive shoppers: American-made products are out; everything else is in.
Ellen Bessner, a Toronto-based securities litigator and Izzy’s owner, recently went through her house looking for US products to replace. The last one standing is an American brand of makeup remover — she’s now searching for a Canadian alternative to switch out before the bottle is even empty.
“I have always been focused on ‘buy Canada,’ but with the threat of tariffs, I am taking it up several notches,” said Bessner, a partner at Babin Bessner Spry.
It’s a significant shift for a country that purchases almost as much in US goods each year as the entire European Union — a total of $349.4 billion in 2024, according to the US Department of Commerce. Canada has also been the largest source of foreign tourists to the US, according to the US Travel Association, with travelers spending $20.5 billion last year. Now, many are cancelling trips.
“It speaks to an awareness — and an intention to vote with their wallets,” said Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute. A survey of 3,310 Canadians by the Vancouver-based research firm last week found that 85% of people plan to replace US products with alternatives. Nearly half of respondents said they would change their travel plans to avoid the country.
Irene Taylor, a managing partner at consulting firm Praxis Partners, recently scrapped plans for a two-month stay in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Instead, she’s planning to visit Canada’s east coast — despite the at-least 20 degree Fahrenheit swing in temperature.
Meanwhile, one of the country’s largest law firms, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin, lost C$1 million ($699,000) in deposits by ripping up plans to bring its lawyers to Las Vegas, according to a Globe and Mail report.
Canadian airlines also have begun to scale back flights to the US in anticipation of falling demand.
“One thing we can do is not give our dollars to the United States right now,” said Curtis Brown, principal at Winnipeg-based Probe Research, which found in a recent poll that more than six in 10 respondents are planning to avoid vacations to the US. Brown said his own daughter’s school division recently cancelled field trips to the country.
In grocery stores across Canada, the newly emboldened buy-domestic movement is anything but subtle. Bright red maple leaves adorn signs blaring “Shop Canadian” that are hung over homegrown foods, to help consumers find what they’re looking for.
At Loblaw Cos., the country’s largest food purchaser, sales of Canadian food had already grown by 8% in the first week of February before the signs went up, the company’s chief executive officer said in a LinkedIn post.
“When I’m out in stores, every single person I meet, they want help and guidance on how to buy more Canadian products and we’re really trying to do everything we can to help them,” Per Bank added on a Feb. 20 earnings call.
At a competing Metro Inc. grocery store in downtown Toronto last week, US-grown apples went largely untouched next to nearly empty racks offering Canadian options. Mexican bell peppers were nearly out of stock near an unloved pile of US counterparts, which had begun to soften and crack.
The boycotts aren’t limited to the grocery aisles: Greg Taylor, chief investment officer at Purpose Investments in Toronto, said he’s skipping over the American section of restaurants’ wine lists “out of spite.”
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Experts said the wrath of Canadians is a bearish sign for US businesses as Trump threatens to expand his trade war. On Feb. 26, the president said he was “not stopping the tariffs” on Canada and Mexico that may hit as early as next week, and that he still planned to go ahead with tariffs against the EU and other trading partners.
“Donald Trump has the ability to get people in other countries upset quite easily,” said David Soberman, a strategic marketing professor at the University of Toronto, who expects a similar reaction from consumers in Europe and Asia. Companies with executives aligned with Trump, like Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc., could face a particularly sharp backlash.
Tesla sales plunged 45% last month across Europe as other EV makers saw a surge in demand. Chrystia Freeland, who’s in the race to become Canada’s next prime minister, has already floated the idea of applying a 100% tariff on the company’s electric vehicles.
Canadian companies that opt to move their investments or people to the US also risk public rebuke. Mark Carney, the central-banker-turned-politician who’s also running to replace Justin Trudeau, is facing attacks from political rivals because Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. decided to move its head office to New York from Toronto while he was the company’s chair. A Quebec-based trucking company, TFI International Inc., abandoned plans to redomicile in the US after shareholders pushed back.
“We want to keep our economic sovereignty,” said Christopher Dip, a Montreal-based engineer who developed an app called Buy Beaver that scans barcodes to tell consumers whether a product is Canadian. Dip said it’s the fastest-growing app he and his business partner have developed, garnering 35,000 downloads in two weeks.
To stick to their principles, Canadians will have to make some sacrifices, not least on cost.
Citrus fruits will need to be flown in from South America rather than Florida. Some locally grown produce requires energy-intensive greenhouses through harsh Canadian winters. And the Angus Reid survey also found that 41% of respondents said they would stop using Amazon.com for e-commerce. Imported goods from Europe or Asia will have a much longer journey to get to the shops than products delivered by train or truck from the US.
Still, furious Canadians said it’s worth the extra money.
Bessner, whose Pyredoodle loves her new, all-Canadian diet, said she knows some people can’t take on the extra costs of avoiding US goods — and that’s fine.
“For those who can afford it, they should be dogged about buying Canadian-made to make up for Canadians who cannot,” she said.