Canadians, furious at Trump, boycott American products

Canadians are foregoing their favorite American products in anger at President Donald Trump. The boycott could impact the U.S. economy.

Cross-border car trips between the U.S. and Canada were down around 30% year over year, according Robert Kavcic of BMO Capital Markets.
Bookings for flights from Canada to the U.S. through the end of September are down by more than 70%, aviation data firm OAG found.
The “Buy Canada” movement could pump $10 billion into Canada’s economy.

TORONTO − At the Madison Avenue Pub, American liquor is no longer for sale.

The popular neighborhood Toronto bar, inside a brick Victorian building blocks from the University of Toronto’s campus, is replete with billiards tables and a full rack of liquor. A sign outside advertises Tuesday night trivia and another inside reads, “A good selection of beers from around the globe.”

Almost.

Since President Donald Trump set Canada in his sights, one country is conspicuously off the menu.

“It’s not acceptable. You want to put your tariffs on, go do whatever you want to do, but don’t threaten and don’t humiliate people,” said Chris Haslett, the bar’s director of operations.

The pub’s boycott of American booze is “personal,” he said.

Trump’s branding of Canada as the “51st state” and the wide-reaching tariffs he has threatened to impose have pushed infuriated Canadians to boycott American products and inspired a “Buy Canada” movement that could take a toll on the U.S. economy.

On April 28, Canadian voters elected Mark Carney as prime minister in a race defined by anger at Trump. Carney’s Liberal Party rode the unprecedented surge of Canadian patriotism to close a 24-point gap behind the Conservative Party − and its Elon Musk-endorsed leader − to win a plurality in Parliament.

After Trump’s 25% tariff on across-the-board Canadian and Mexican imports took effect on March 4, Canada rushed to retaliate. Then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau quickly announced a 25% tariff on $155 billion on U.S. imports. American liquor, wine and beer was pulled from Canadian shelves.

As the stock market tumbled, Trump reneged on the tariffs days later. But tariffs on steel, aluminum and cars have remained.

Canadians shun their favorite American buys

Canadians, stunned at the economic and rhetorical beating from a country they once viewed as like family, are avoiding their former favorite American products.

Loblaws, a Canadian grocery chain with more than 2,400 locations, is tagging Canadian goods throughout stores with a maple leaf. After Trump’s threats in early March, it announced it would label any goods subject to a tariff with a black “T” symbol.

“I have to buy juice that I don’t like as much. That’s my sacrifice,” Jane Gibson, 80, said outside a Loblaws in central Toronto.

Her motivation – Trump’s unprecedented threats to make Canada the “51st state.”

“It’s not going to happen,” she said. “I’ll go to the border with a pitchfork.”

‘Buy Canadian’ worth $10 billion a year

“We’re all going to hunker down and we’re going to try to stand together as Canadians, to try to keep our own economy strong without having to rely on America,” said Peter Sweeney, 51.

“We want to try to show them that we can get by without them,” he said.

The impact of Canadians turning to homegrown goods could add around 10 billion Canadian dollars to the country’s economy and hike its GDP by around 0.3 percentage points, according to research from Robert Kavcic, director of economics at BMO Capital Markets.

“From a Canadian perspective, it’s pretty meaningful,” he said. “It doesn’t offset the actual impact of the trade war, but it does add a little bit of stimulus to the Canadian economy.”

After Trump’s whiplash on tariffs in recent months, the full scope of the economic impact on Canada is not yet clear. A 25% tariff on all its exports to the U.S. could sink Canada’s GDP by 1.3 percentage points by 2027, a Peterson Institute for International Economics analysis found.

South of the border: ‘Too scary’

U.S. industries are already feeling a cold wind from up north.

Canadian provinces and stores choosing not to stock up on American liquor is “worse than a tariff,” Lawson Whiting, CEO of Brown-Forman, which makes Jack Daniels, said on an earnings call last month amid the tariff scare.

Fewer visits to America

The U.S. tourism industry could take an especially hard hit as Canadians give up their regular vacations south of the border.

Andrea Penhale, of Courtice, a town around 35 miles east of Toronto, said Trump had upended her annual visit to see her sister, who lives in Tennessee and holds a green card.

“It’s too scary,” she said.

Cross-border car trips between the U.S. and Canada were down around 30% year over year, according to Kavcic’s research. Airline bookings over the spring and summer are down as much as 30%, he said.

Some data put the number even higher – bookings for flights through the end of September are down by more than 70% every month, aviation data firm OAG found.

Haslett said he recently canceled a trip he takes a couple times a year to Nashville, accepting the loss of several hundred dollars he had already spent on the vacation to backstop his boycott.

“I will not go down for four years,” he said.

Boycotts spark opportunities, inventions

Amid difficult times, Canadians said, they were confident that they could redirect trade internally and to new international partners. On the campaign trail, both Prime Minister Carney and his Conservative rival Pierre Poilievre promised to free up trade between provinces to relieve the impacts of U.S. tariffs.

Canadians say boycotts of U.S. products have made them more savvy consumers. At the Madison Avenue Pub, necessity became the mother of invention, as staff searched for ways to make popular American-made ingredients themselves.

Haslett said the bar had invented its own sour puss raspberry, a fruity liqueur made only in the U.S. “I tasked someone to figure out how to make it, and they did,” he said.

“I do believe that Canadians will find a way to be resilient here, and we will figure out a way to buy and sell products to one another and to other people in the world,” said Sweeney. “We’re resourceful. We always have been.”