Canadians are ready to fight tariffs with their dollar. Here’s what they told us | Canada Voices

Oh Canada! As the possibility of tariffs from the U.S. threatened everything from the price of cars to your grocery bill on Monday, The Globe asked if you were changing your purchasing habits – and you didn’t mince words.

While any trade war between Canada and the United States has been stayed for at least 30 days by U.S. President Donald Trump, based on the strength of the reactions to our query, some new shopping philosophies will be here to stay.

The impacts of U.S. tariffs could be devastating on Canadian businesses and the economy, and in response, a movement has surged to boycott U.S. goods and buy Canadian products instead.

Beyond the financials, an emotional thread also wove through the answers, with a real sense of betrayal that our American neighbours would undermine our long-standing relationship in this way.

Here’s how you explained your choices, and your decisions. Some answers have been edited for length or clarity.

How to find Canadian (and non-American) products

“Farm Boy (my closest grocery) has done a wonderful job of highlighting greenhouse and grown-in-Canada produce, making a big difference in which brands of tomatoes, leafy greens, and other vegetables I buy in the winter. As someone who can afford to spend an extra dollar, I will continue to choose to buy these products, along with Canadian meat and dairy. Having the funds to make these decisions is something I am grateful for, which I think needs to be said, as not everyone had the privilege to make these choices.” – Gillian Webb

“I will be reading labels and substituting Canadian food products for American wherever possible, which may include changing up some of my regular purchases. I’m also turning to Canadian Tire instead of Amazon for general merchandise. Two great Canadian brands that are also better for the environment are Tru Earth and Nellie’s, which sell cleaning supplies and laundry detergent in concentrated forms. People should give them a try.” – Janice Johnston

“My fruit and vegetable shopping last trip … involved purchases of eggplant from the Dominican Republic, potatoes from B.C., mixed lettuce greens (Good Leaf) from Alberta – of all places – frozen B.C.-grown blueberries, cherry tomatoes (Hiiros) from Ontario and green grapes from Peru. Not great from an environmental footprint point-of-view but better than supporting a U.S. that seems to have declared war on Canada?! It took me longer to figure out what was and wasn’t a U.S. product but a great shout-out to my local B.C. grocer Thriftys who did a pretty good job of labelling. I’m enjoying finding out how many great Canadian alternatives there are in food! Just discovered a pasta maker in the Kootenays (Kaslo Sourdough)! Maybe there is a small upside to all this madness and a small sacrifice for our sovereignty.” – Heather Northrup

A closer look at the tech you use

“Definitely stopping or minimizing all U.S.-sourced goods and services. A focus on the enablers from Big Tech. A few specifics: cancel Netflix, add Britbox. Stop using Google browser and search, replace with DuckDuckGo and Firefox. Check labels at grocery store and leave U.S. items on the shelf. Lots of choice in the world. Drop subscriptions to YouTube channels with a polite message to the channel creator. Drop Starbucks coffee, choose Happy Goat or William Spartivento – both better anyway. No U.S. beer, wine, or liquor. No Trek bicycles, yes to Giant (Taiwan). Looking at switching apps – e-mail, maps, calendar … from Google.” – John Gibson

“Currently wintering in the Spanish Costa del Sol as an alternative to Florida. Just cancelled Amazon Prime and will swap Netflix for Brit Box. Will implement Buy Canada plan when we return.” – Patrick Johnston

Getting more from what Canada has to offer

“My partner and I have decided to stop all travel to the U.S. (even for layovers) and avoid all American products. This includes Amazon, Netflix, and American clothing brands. We will support Mexican and European products and treat it as a new opportunity to explore Canadian options that we might otherwise have not discovered. We will treat this as an opportunity to grow our pride in what it means to be Canadian. I hope trade barriers will be removed between provinces so we can explore Canadian products from other fellow Canadians (i.e., Manitoban or B.C. beer in Quebec please)!” – Matthew Parent

“Canadian beer. We have so many good ones to choose from. All I can figure is that TV lifestyle advertising and sports sponsorships of companies like Budweiser and Coors have made them popular and, coincidentally (?), they seem to be the ones most often seen in the ditch. Lee Valley for woodworking and garden tools and hardware. Newfoundland-based Mysa smart home thermostats for heat pumps and baseboards. You can crank up the heat from bed! OLA Bamboo in Drummondwille, QC makes toothbrushes with handles from scrap maple (hockey stick mill ends?) and other great eco-friendly non-plastic products.” – R Allin

“Bought some books and did not go through Amazon but rather got them in Canada. We are getting new windows and are definitely not buying the American option but Canadian instead. I certainly won’t be vacationing or visiting the U.S. either. As for groceries, I am lucky to have a wonderful local grocery called Marilu’s Market here in Burlington which I shop at and they sell a lot of Canadian products also. I will actively look to reject American goods.” – Lynn Crosby

“This whole fiasco has broken my relationship with the U.S. in a permanent fashion. I will buy Canadian for everything possible. Where it isn’t possible, I will chose any other nation over U.S.-made goods. I would like to see more Made in Canada signs in the grocery stores. Toilet paper and paper products will come from Canada, cosmetics will come from Canada or Europe. Shampoo will come from Canada, as will hand soap. My children’s clothes and shoes will be harder but I am determined to make as big of an impact as I possibly can. A 30-day reprieve of the tariffs will do nothing to change my resolve.” – Andrea Cochrane

No more American booze (even beloved wines)

“No more – ever: Jack Daniels, California Zinfandel, Buicks, John Deere, Arizona trips, American produce. And that’s just the start. Americans are no longer our friends – they’re barely even our allies.” – Dave Jorgensen

“We normally buy a case of California wine per week. With what is going on we will trying wines from various countries, Australia, Chile, France and Canada. We will not be buying American wines.” – Bill E Dafoe

“My wife and I are devoted Chardonnay wine consumers and predominantly California due to variety and quality. However having discovered a few labels from Niagara over the past year or so, we will be exclusively Niagara buyers until the USA abandons its insane bully tactics. Readers should explore the many fine wines from Niagara and enjoy the surprise.” – Dave Parkes

Eight Canadian wines to buy now

Staying out of the U.S. for travel

“This morning we cancelled our May 8-17 trip to Palm Springs. Will visit the Canadian Rockies in Kananaskis and Banff instead.” – Tom Becker

“For more than 25 years, every spring, this motley crew of Kirkland Lakers (and a few others before us) have come together at Byrncliff, a modest golf resort near Buffalo. There, we traded jokes, drank a few bevvies, played poker and made every attempt to break 100 on the links (most of us being unsuccessful). Yesterday we informed the course that we were canceling our reservations slated for May. We just couldn’t stomach the thought of spending our money in TrumpLandia. We are Canadians first and always.We estimate it will cost the resort at least US$10,000.” – Rick Doyon

“Cancelled a much anticipated trip to Arizona and rerouted it to Toronto (in March!). Not super keen on funding the U.S. in the short- or the long-term.” – Jay Jackson

“My shoes will never touch American soil again no matter how this resolves. Our American friends are appalled at how Trump has denegraded Canada and said they agree with our anger. They will be coming up here for visits, instead. He has permanently burned the friendship tie we had.” – Tony Flynn

Making do with less

“I’d rather eat turnips and kale rather than put up with this bullying. Even now that they’ve paused it for 30 days, the fact that they think they can threaten us like this is intolerable. Forget oranges unless they come from Spain. Same with garlic. Or we do without things, fine! I’ve always tried to make sure my personal care products are made in Canada (thank you Green Beaver!). Our cars have always been made in Europe (where are the Canadian cars!?). We toyed with the idea of a Tesla. But never now. They want an economic war? Forget fentanyl, that’s just a red herring; they want our water, our oil and wheat, our minerals, they want Arctic drilling. They’re not stopping. Neither am I. Neither are most people I know. It feels like we’re moving into a wartime economy, that’s fine. We can manage and we will. It’s our fault for allowing ourselves to become so intertwined. It’s going to be very painful to disengage but we can.” – Linda Gustafson