RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesSince the start of the US-Canada trade war in February 2025, some Canadian stores have labeled Canadian products more clearly for consumers. Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images
The US-Canada trade war is getting uglier, with innocent lakes being brought into the conflict.
Canadians are fighting back in the politest, most Canadian way ever: By shopping more locally.
While they've discovered some great swaps, fully quitting America is harder than it looks.
As the US-Canadian trade war expands, some Canadians are purposefully shrinking their shopping options by staying local.
It isn't easy.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump's 50% tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian goods went into effect, prompting "dollar-for-dollar" retaliatory tariffs from Canada — the latest escalation since the trade war officially began in March 2025, affecting industries ranging from manufacturing to alcohol.
To push back, some Canadian businesses started displaying "Made in Canada" labels in their stores last spring, prompting shoppers to consider swapping their US grocery hauls for more locally sourced fare.
Canadian businesses have been promoting locally made products since the trade war began. Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Sarah Chudleigh, a 28-year-old content marketer in Montreal, distinctly remembers a shift around that time when she and her friends started prioritizing Canadian goods . "It felt like there was one big full swing last year, maybe just before the summer, when it became more of a collective notion," she told Business Insider.
While she's made some great Canadian discoveries, like Ungava Gin and Romeo's Gin from Quebec, "there isn't always a direct swap for the American goods we're used to buying," she said. In some cases, she still prefers to buy some American produce like oranges, which are sourced closer to Canada, and she feels tend to be higher quality than those shipped from overseas.
From analyzing "made in" labels to paying more for product swaps, Canadians say shopping locally doesn't come without a price.
Discovering Canada's homegrown products
Canadians have enjoyed buying more local, seasonal produce and Canadian swaps of their favorite American snacks. Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images
Early in 2025, Alice Wu made a personal choice to shop more locally. Since then, it's opened up her world.
"I'm pretty sure I've visited more local vendors, farms, greenhouses, and boutique shops in the last year than I have in the previous five years," Wu, 46, a senior PR associate, told Business Insider.
When buying more seasonal produce , like peaches at her local farmers market, the mom of two living on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls found that it tastes fresher and costs less than the imported US version. Switching from General Mills to Nature's Path cereal, a Canadian brand, hasn't felt like a sacrifice either — she personally thinks Nature's Path tastes like a higher quality product.
While some swaps took more trial and error — her 9-year-old son was not a fan of replacing Oreos with Canada's Dare cookies — she's generally been able to find solutions, such as chocolate chip cookies baked at a local grocery store.
For some Canadians, staying more local has taken on a more literal meaning. Prior to the trade war, travel blogger Emilie Brillon, a mom of two living near Calgary, focused her business on global travel, including within the US.
Brillon now promotes travel within Canada, exploring her country through road trips with her family. Emilie Brillon
Now she documents her family's road trips across Canada and has even switched her website to a "ca" URL.
"It's so beautiful, and even within each province, it's so different," Brillon, 38, told Business Insider. "We realize how lucky we are to be here."
Along the way, she's also enjoyed buying outdoor gear like The Green Beaver sunscreen from Ontario, Slopedeck snowskates from British Columbia, and Farm Girl cereal manufactured in Ontario.
The confusing world of 'maple washing'
Some labels can be misleading, sometimes promoting products imported from or made in the US. Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Last year, some Canadian businesses promoting "made in Canada" products found themselves in a sticky controversy. They were " maple washing " their items, deceiving consumers by slapping maple leaf stickers onto imported products — including some from the US — to indicate that they are Canadian.
For some shoppers, this added a new hurdle at the grocery store.
"Now, I make it more of a point myself to look at the actual product's label to see if it was either made in Canada or packaged in Canada or if there is something to do with Canada," Wu said.
Then there's the question of what actually counts as a Canadian product .
"There are a lot of different ways to frame whether something is Canadian or not, and it's not really an easy 'yes' or 'no' answer," Chudleigh said. "Do the materials need to be from Canada? Probably not. Does it need to be made in Canada? Probably. Is it Canadian ownership? Usually that's what they mean."
Some labels make it clear when a US product is physically made in Canada. Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images
For Chudleigh, litigating whether every single product in her cart counts as Canadian is too time-consuming. "I take the very simple answer of whether it's Canadian or not at face value," she said, trusting stores to use the correct labels. "It would've been so much effort otherwise."
Quitting America comes at a cost
Brillon said some Canadian swaps have been more expensive. Emilie Brillon
Some US products are just too hard to give up.
For Brillon, it's the tech products from Google and Meta that she uses for her work as a content creator. For Wu, it's Legos for her kids.
Some fresh produce is also hard to get without metaphorically crossing the border. ...
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