Canadians find unity amongst tariff threats, border uncertainties

Donald Trump’s tariff threats have inspired a swell of Canadian patriotism.

Inside Stirling Farm Market in Moncton, N.B., about 90 per cent of the products are from Atlantic Canada, but that hasn’t stopped customers from double checking what they put in their bag.

“People are asking questions like, ‘Where does this come from?’ And that is a really good thing to start. ‘Is it grown here?’ And that’s really important, so we’ve had more conversations about where things come from,” said manager, Melyssa Miller.

Miller said overall, customers are changing what they purchase if it isn’t made in Canada.

“They might not buy a red pepper or green pepper or something because that’s the simple stuff. They say, ‘Well maybe I can do it frozen’ because there’s so many frozen options, not here, but you can get frozen options from Canada,” she said.

Many consumers are changing their shopping habits to make sure that their support stays in their own country.

Hazel Nielson was buying a jar of honey on Wednesday, but she had some specific requirements before purchase.

“I check everything to see if it comes from the states and if it comes from the states, it’s not coming home with me,” she said.

Laurann Hanson is also being more conscious about what she buys.

“I’m certainly looking at reading labels a lot more closely and trying to buy as many Canadian products as I can,” she said.

Even businesses are making sure that consumers know that Canadian made products are available in their own back yard.

Deanna Parker, owner of La Dee Da Style Boutique, has always supported Canadian suppliers, but with the conversations online now over supporting local, she wanted to make sure buyers knew their options.

“When people think about clothes, they typically think everything comes from the U.S. It doesn’t come from the U.S., all of my suppliers are from all across Canada,” she said.

“Everyone will comment on the fact that they see tags ‘Made in Canada’ and they do appreciate that, so it’s certainly in the forefront.”

However, she does say that Canadian-made products can come with a higher price tag and she has seen customers make compromises to still support Canadian as much as possible, within budget.

“You can’t always find ‘made in Canada.’ When you can’t find a ‘made in Canada’ then you’re looking for the next best option maybe it’s a Canada company made overseas but it’s done through fair trade and then you’re still supporting the Canadian families here in Canada even if the product hasn’t been sourced here,” she said.

However, Canada’s support spreads much further than just buying products.

Hockey arenas have seen fans “booing” at the American Anthem, online posts have been plentiful and even in-person conversations all point to the fact that Canadians are finding unity as they stand proud to be Canadian.

“I think it’s our only salvation. Power in numbers,” said Peter Spence.

Spence already tries to buy local, but in the last month, he has been reading labels more carefully and said he would put products back on the shelf if his only option was an American item.

Digital anthropologist, Giles Crouch, says the announcement of tariffs created a “stronger sense of Canadian pride that we haven’t seen in years.”

Online, memes, videos, posts and pictures have brought Canadians from all over the country together on the same subject.

“I have never seen memes like this or a sense of pride in Canada expressed so fast across all the social media channels,” he said.

He calls it social effervescence and says Canadians chose the Canadian goose as the national animal to drive home the country’s pride.

“One of the videos that I saw shared a lot, an image meme, was a Canadian goose chasing away an eagle. It’s sort of an example of we’re nice until we’re not … and I think that’s expressing a lot of where Canadians are today,” he said.

“The anger that I’ve seen expressed towards the U.S. is towards the administration, it’s not towards American citizens themselves, and what’s interesting to me is although there are angry discussions and negative discussions that take place, the majority of it is done in a more humorous way. We’re poking fun, we’re not reacting angrily, we’re not reacting in a negative way … we’re doing it in that sort of Canadian sense of humour.”

St. Thomas University Sociology professor, Kristi Allain, says she isn’t surprised by how quickly Canadians banded together.

“When nationalisms feel under threat by an external force, people really come together, that’s a sense of national identity and pride in the nation and pride in people that we don’t know and will never meet really increases. We’re really proud to be Canadian,” she said.

“A colleague told me that she had gone to Canadian Tire to buy a big Canadian flag that she had draped in her window and it’s happening in unexpected places. My Facebook feed is full of people who are talking about buying Canadian, helping each other navigate the grocery store, making sure that they get products that are not American.”

Allain says our sense of nation is deeply entrenched with not being American and therefore it’s easy to ask Canadians to bind together and to make sacrifices, such as no American liquor.

“This is how national identities work. They form these imagine communities from coast to coast. We in Atlantic Canada might have far more in common with American’s who are close by. In New Brunswick, Maine is a place where we share a lifestyle, industries, we’re deeply connected and yet, when I speak to my students about nationalism and national identity, they tell me they feel much more connected with somebody from Vancouver, living very far away in a deeply urban setting, where we’re an urban rural setting here, and they feel that connection because of this kind of shared identity.”

With tariffs currently postponed and many unknowns, experts say they expect this sense of unity and public display of Canadian pride to last for quite a while.

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