Why ‘buying Canadian’ isn’t as easy as it sounds
Can shrewd shopping truly help Canada push back on economic threats from the United States?
If you believe the rhetoric from some political leaders, every little bit helps — especially if consumers pay closer attention to labels.
“When you look at ‘made in Canada’ or ‘made in Ontario’ products — buy them,” said Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who is about to call an early election partly, he says, to shore up his efforts against the looming threat of U.S. tariffs.
“Make sure we send a message to big retailers. Costco, Sobeys, Walmart, Metro and Loblaws. Buy Canadian products.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has suggested substituting Canadian-made products could help mitigate the impact of wide-ranging tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened.
“Having Canadian consumers have alternatives… is part of how we make sure that Canadians do not bear undue costs around tariffs,” Trudeau said this week.
U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking by video to people gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, argued that other countries, including Canada, are taking advantage of the U.S. He also repeated claims that the U.S. doesn’t need anything from Canada.
But observers say the reality of the country’s present-day economy is that it’s not easy to find Canadian products across a variety of sectors.
“We don’t do a lot of the final consumer good processing in Canada,” said Torsten Søcthing Jaccard, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver School of Economics. “We produce a lot of the raw inputs.”
Daniel Trefler, a trade economist and professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management doubts that such an approach will yield appreciable results.
“The focus on consumer-facing goods will get us nowhere,” he said in an email.
Complex economy
Domestic industries would welcome any potential increase in business from a push to buy Canadian.
But even manufacturers admit that the complex and modern Canadian economy operates differently than it did decades ago, in the era before free trade, and that such an effort could only go so far in reducing the pain that tariffs would bring.
“Because of the size of our market, Canadians buying Canadian-made products… will not offset the potential losses if things are restricted into the U.S. market,” said Dennis Darby, president and CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, whose organization represents 2,500 manufacturers across the country.
He easily lists a number of products that are made in Canada — various foods and beverages, pet food, cosmetics, furniture and more — but says that doesn’t mean you can get a domestically produced version of everything.
“You can’t go buy a Canadian-made…