There’s something deeply familiar about Canadians rallying around the flag. We do it for Olympic gold medal hockey games (especially against the Americans), world junior tournaments, and in moments of crisis, like the threat of being absorbed as the 51st state. Side note: someone should remind President Trump (and his Republicans colleagues) that adding Canada – with the population of Texas – could hand Democrats an extra 44 electoral college votes every election.
Politics aside, the instinct to rally around the flag and defend Canadian businesses makes sense. Supporting local is often a good idea. Nobody’s arguing with the taste of local, in-season strawberries versus the ones that ripen on the truck from California. But the well-intentioned hysteria about “buying Canadian” in response to tariffs is missing the bigger picture.
We live in a deeply interconnected global economy. This is the exact point we’re trying to make to the Trump administration. The lists circulating online about which brands to support? They miss the mark entirely.
Take the claim that we should buy French’s ketchup instead of Heinz because it’s “Canadian”. In reality, Heinz ketchup sold in Canada is made with Canadian tomatoes and canned by Canadian workers Or how about Joe Louis, a beloved Canadian snack? It’s made by Vachon, sure, but the parent company is Grupo Bimbo, headquartered in Mexico, with operations across the U.S. and Europe.
One gem of advice was to buy PC Cola over Coke and Pepsi because the latter are “American”. Yet both are bottled in Canada by Canadian workers, using Canadian ingredients. In fact, Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Ltd. is 100% Canadian-owned. At worst, Coke in Canada has dual citizenship.
In some cases the list of American versus Canadian products is just plain wrong. Nestle was listed as an American company when it is actually a Swiss-headquartered company. It's ok to be wrong in a trade war as long as you feel like you’re contributing to the war effort right?
The truth is, many multinational food companies buy Canadian agricultural products and process them right here in Canada. This creates 350,000 jobs in every region of the country. Some buy inputs from the U.S., manufacture those products here and then export them back across the border. In other cases, U.S. companies source Canadian manufacturing inputs and then sell final and finished goods to markets around the world, including back to Canada.
This is why tariffs on Canadian goods hurt not just Canadians but American consumers – and why we know they make U.S. exports less competitive globally.
The same especially applies to cars. Parts, systems, and materials cross the border multiple times before the finished vehicle lands in a Canadian or U.S. dealership. Food, cars, tech, you name it. Most products we consume aren’t exclusively “Canadian” or “American”. They’re North American, the result of shared labour, technology, and supply chains.
Even when goods do have standalone origins, trade is a two-way street. Eating a peach in February in Toronto? Thank a farmer in Georgia.
Eating a peach in August in Buffalo? Thank a farmer in Niagara.
So yes, be outraged by punishing tariffs and veiled threats of annexation. Rallying together makes sense. But don’t let the oversimplified lists convince you that supporting one product over another is a patriotic act. Not only does it undermine the argument for North American integration, but in many cases, it’s just plain wrong.