In the name of patriotism Winnipeg companies trumpet Canadian ownership amid U.S. trade war
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/03/2025 (579 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
American Hi-Fi has been a magnet for Winnipeg audiophiles for decades, but when tariff trouble hit from south of the border, its owner wasn’t sure if the name would become bad for business.
“I wondered if I should change my name,” Dennis Penner chuckled during an interview with the Free Press Tuesday.
From his shop, in the Manitoba Crafts and Museum Library on Cumberland Avenue, he points out high-end Canadian-made amplifiers, speakers and other electronics for sale and rattles off brands that he might recommend to customers looking to shun the American market.
When American Hi-Fi was founded in 1960, owner Leon Isenberg picked the moniker because most of the iconic audio companies came out of the U.S., Penner said.
It’s more or less remained that way since then, he said, noting that many buyers in his niche customer base chose a brand or style of audio tech and have stuck with it for years. A surge in Canadian patriotism and the tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on material used to make the products could change that.
“People are exposed very much to the American brands, more than the Canadian brands, but I think that’ll change,” he said.
“I’ve already heard from a couple of other Canadian dealers, and they’re definitely pivoting away from U.S.-made products.”
Penner began boycotting Trump’s America long before booze was pulled from Liquor Mart shelves this month and Canadian flags were being sold at the grocery store. In 2016, during Trump’s first term, he was so “horrified” by the president’s behaviour that he stopped attending a convention in Las Vegas that he’d gone to for years.
He’s grateful no customer has threatened to boycott his store based on its name. He’s also not surprised. American Hi-Fi has weathered the storms that result from being an independent dealer of audio electronics in the age of online shopping and subscription streaming services. He noted that when he took over the company in 1975, he had more than 40 competitors.
Now, there are three or four.
What’s in a name for Penner? Everything: the history of the business, its reputation and customer base are reflected in the name, and he has no plan to change that.
“In my little bit of advertising that I do, I’ll probably emphasize the fact that I’m Canadian,” he said.
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Over at Canadian Footwear in the Exchange District, if the name or the maple leaf that adorns its brand aren’t enough, its website includes a note for shoppers: the store is family-owned and Canadian.
Owner Brian Scharfstein said more customers are asking questions about where their products are manufactured. There’s been increased online traffic, likely from shoppers across the country who found the business while searching for Canadian online retailers.
“We’re seeing higher traffic, but it also means that we have to hang our Canadian flag in its own virtual way, because that is a discussion, certainly, for many people when they come in,” he said.
“I would be lying if I said that we aren’t taking the opportunity to hold our identity as Canadian Footwear nice and high, we are all very proud to be called Canadian Footwear.”
Customers talk to employees about support for footwear makers and sellers across the country on a daily basis, Scharfstein said.
“I think, right now, people are trusting other Canadian businesses, and so we need to focus more on what we know is a good Canadian relationship.”
At any local malls, patrons will find Canadian restaurants named after popular U.S. locations — Boston Pizza, New York Fries, Bourbon Street Grill, to name a few.
Even the managers at such franchises have gone out of their way to explain to customers that while they have American monikers, their chains are owned by Canadian companies, said Loren Remillard, president and CEO of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s not surprising that in this heightened time of patriotism that companies are (asking), ‘How do we make sure our customers understand we’re Canadian-owned and operated, that we have Canadian products?’”– Loren Remillard, president and CEO of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce
He likened Canadians’ emotional response to Trump’s trade war with Canada to the wave of American restaurants that renamed french fries to “freedom fries” in response to France’s opposition to the invasion of Iraq by the U.S. in 2003.
“There’s a lot of emotional attachment to names, it elicits an emotional response,” he said.
“It’s not surprising that in this heightened time of patriotism that companies are (asking), ‘How do we make sure our customers understand we’re Canadian-owned and operated, that we have Canadian products?’”
Much like “freedom fries,” which disappeared as the Iraq War became less popular with Americans, Remillard warned that changing the name of a well-known business or brand based on a constantly changing conflict could hurt more than it could help.
“No company is going to make a very difficult decision to abandon their investment in their brand and their identity for what we hope to be a very short-term challenge,” he said.
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
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