Judy Hutmacher has been “waving the flag” from her garage door and on her car ever since Donald Trump started threatening Canada’s sovereignty and its economy with tariffs. Photo: Richard Lam Photography
For Judy Hutmacher, waving the Canadian flag has taken on a whole new meaning. The Federal Retirees member now has one flying on her car and another at her home in Surrey, B.C.
When it became clear Donald Trump was serious about levying an ever-sliding scale of tariffs on Canadian goods, news of Canadians selling their U.S. real estate quickly spread. Then came cancelling travel plans to the United States. After that came a focus on products made in Canada.
Fearing the ultimate impact on the pocketbook, the slight on their Canadian identity and threats to make their country the 51st state have Canadians — and indeed Federal Retirees members — exploring what they can do to help shore up the Canadian economy and become more self-reliant.
Hutmacher follows Facebook pages that focus on “Made in Canada” products and has compiled an ever-growing list of Canadian items to buy. Jamieson vitamins is a big one, then there’s Primo pasta, Royale facial tissue, Tru Earth detergent, Hellmann’s mayonnaise and French’s mustard. Hutmacher might also look for her favourite jam from France or dryer balls made from New Zealand wool in her efforts to move away from American products.
“Mostly, it’s the small things we can do,” Hutmacher says. “I’m shopping a bit more carefully for Canadian products, and as much as we can, buying made-in-Canada items,” says the retiree, who worked in various departments in the federal government before retiring 18 years ago. “They’re just small things, but they’re important to me to show our patriotism. We’ve been so closely tied with the States in my lifetime. We’ve counted on [the United States] for things that are cheaper. We made a mistake there, and now we’re going to pay for it in more than one way.”
As she sees the prices of products increase, she worries not for herself, but for other generations or those who haven’t been as fortunate. She’s also more finely tuned into politics, knowing our world is quickly changing, worried that the whole course of history is in the midst of a significant shift.
Abacus Data tracked shifts in Canadian consumer sentiment in February, finding a growing desire to buy local, and in some cases, to avoid American products entirely. But the company also found Canadians aren’t always sure which brands are truly Canadian, with more than half of those surveyed believing that Tim Hortons and Molson are Canadian owned. They are not, in spite of Molson’s excellent, and opportunistic, pro-Canada commercial launched at the beginning of the trade war. Corporate takeovers and mergers can also often muddy ownership structures, making it difficult at times to assign a company to a particular geographic location.
Perceptions about where our food comes from are equally hazy, the polling and market research firm found. It doesn’t help that the writing underneath a maple leaf on a can of food may mean any number of things, including that the packaging was designed in Canada. (See below for more details.)
Giving up things we like
Since Brenda and Mike Walters returned home from two weeks in Mexico, tariffs and international trade have been the No. 1 topic of discussion and, of course, a subject of great concern.
Brenda has long been a label reader, but now they’re both aware of the products that are at least partly made in Canada. They’ll pick Home Hardware over Home Depot and that goes for most stores. If they know it’s American owned, they won’t go in. Mike says he fully supports pulling American products off the store shelves.
“That kind of hurts because I like Californian wine,” sighs Mike, past president of Federal Retirees’ Hamilton and area branch.
Xiaodan Pan, associate professor in supply chain management at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business in Montreal, points to the current unsettling situation between the U.S. and Canada as a key reason to strengthen supply-chain resilience and focus on increasing self-reliance to encourage the longevity of the buy-Canadian movement.
“Supply chain disruptions, such as tariff wars, often lead to increased costs and product shortages, affecting consumers across the short, medium, and long term,” forcing them to adjust their purchasing behaviours, she says, adding that could become difficult for low-income households that bear the greatest burden.
Canadian enterprises need to reduce risk exposure by sourcing from multiple suppliers and ensure greater stability during disruptions and maintain strategic inventories of essential products.
Strategy and planning are important in the long-term for businesses looking to support the demand for more self-reliance. And that means strategic investments in expanding domestic production.
“By leveraging advanced technology, skilled labour and supportive policies, Canadian businesses can reduce dependence on foreign suppliers, enhance economic security and create a more robust and adaptive supply chain,” Pan says.
The movement can be further sustained if retailers make it easier for Canadian consumers, adds Tandy Thomas, a professor of marketing at Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business. She’d like to see more prominence given to Canadian products so they’re easier to find.
Scanning every single label to determine a product’s origin can be a hassle for consumers who may eventually abandon the effort. But if it’s easy to identify the products, they will continue their focus on buying Canadian, she argues. Making the initial switch easier could result in a permanent shift in shopping behaviour, which would have a long-term impact.
The current focus, she says, is not only significant for the message it sends; it’s also a rare opportunity. Grocery shopping, she explains, is habitual.
And there are only a few moments in a person’s life when their shopping habits change — like when they’re moving, having kids or when kids move out.
“Now we are presented with another situation where people are changing their shopping habits and that is a huge opportunity,” she says. “That could be the silver lining in this.”
With a population of 40 million people, Canada has the ability to make a difference in the marketplace and have an impact. The unpredictability of the situation is top of mind for people and if trade tensions further escalate, prices will rise and there will be job losses. She believes the current environment offers a “tremendous opportunity” to boost Canadian products in the marketplace.
Toward the end of her latest annual sojourn in Mexico, Federal Retirees member Sheila Ducarme saw noticeable reaction to the political threats from the United States on that country as well. There were fewer shoppers in the local Walmart and the Ducarmes were repeatedly asked whether they were American or Canadian. They proudly distinguished themselves as the latter. Ducarme worked for the federal government for 37.5 years, starting in the department of manpower and ending with social development.
While she was in Mexico, she was focused on buying locally and moving away from purchasing American products, something she continued doing when she returned to Canada. And she wonders, with hope in her voice, if Canadian shopping habits will shift a bit back to the days when consumers relied upon smaller shops such as butchers, cheese shops and independent grocers.
“I have no delusions that this will be easy,” she says. “It’s going to hurt us big time. But I’m delighted that Canada sold off billions in U.S. bonds.”
Mike Walters, who spent 34 years with the federal government, largely in various iterations of customs and ultimately at the Canada Border Services Agency until his retirement 19 years ago, encourages Canadians to reach out to all levels of government and to put a Canadian focus on tenders for products and services. He’d like to see an express exclusion of suppliers from directly south of our border. He suggests those living in border towns also reach out to neighbouring governors to express their disappointment over the trade war and encourage the White House to honour the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement.
That’s something Hutmacher, from B.C., feels strongly about as well, having dispatched letters to local members of federal and provincial governments. “If nobody is going to speak up, then who will?” she says. “I’ve read enough history about the 1930s. Nobody said anything back then. We really know what’s going on now, and we should speak up.”
Is it really ‘Made in Canada?’
The maple leaf doesn’t tell the whole story. A bit of background information about what a label means is sometimes required to distinguish the level of Canadianism a product or initiative truly contains.
Made in Canada means that at least 51 per cent of the total direct costs of producing or manufacturing the good have been incurred in Canada and could be accompanied by a qualifying statement such as “Made in Canada with imported parts” or “Made in Canada with domestic and imported parts.”
Ingredients from elsewhere can be used in food products if “the last substantial transformation of the product” occurred in Canada, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Product of Canada refers to the fact that at least 98 per cent of the total direct costs of producing or manufacturing the good have been incurred in Canada.
While the Competition Bureau of Canada indicates it will generally not challenge a claim if it meets the above conditions, it stresses that it doesn’t certify or approve Canadian content claims.
For further clarification, visit the The Competition Bureau’s webpage. Another resource to help consumers identify products that are Canadian is the buybeaver.ca site, created by Montreal tech entrepreneurs Alexandre Hamila and Christopher Dip.