Sending a message with our pocketbooks

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/02/2025 (254 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

South of the border, there’s once again an increased urgency to “Buy American.”

In Canada, however, thanks to U.S. President Donald Trump’s expeditious and puzzlingly eager poisoning of relations between two formerly friendly neighbours, the inclination has quickly shifted more toward “bye, American!”

From whiny tirades and tariff threats to tiresomely persistent out-loud musings about annexing Canada as the 51st state, the petulant POTUS seems to be going out of his way to declare that the long-standing friendship between our two countries is over.

With the very real possibility of devastating cross-border penalties being imposed within weeks, Canadians are rightly shifting their focus away from American goods and destinations and toward spending on homegrown products and services, or those whose origin is anywhere other than the United States.

It’s a reality to which Canadians would be well advised to get accustomed, as we’re barely a month into Trump’s second term and it’s clear the next four years will be defined by antagonism, aggression and an absence of co-operative common sense.

Canadians are being told, in no uncertain terms, that the U.S. government views them with disdain and that, as Trump himself has repeatedly insisted, the U.S. doesn’t need anything from us.

Closer to home, a new poll suggests three-quarters of Manitobans are actively planning to stop buying U.S.-made products, and more than 60 per cent of those surveyed have cancelled vacation plans involving American destinations. The Probe Research poll, conducted earlier this month, gathered online responses from 600 adults — a representative sample of Manitobans.

As one Winnipegger interviewed by the Free Press put it, “I would rather pay more money and buy Canadian than support the American economy.”

While Trump’s openly expressed contempt seems to be broadly directed at Canada as a sovereign nation and a trading partner, he seems to have discounted the potential impact of his remarks on individual Canadians and the amount they collectively contribute to the U.S. economy.

The effects of Canadian boycotts will be limited, of course, given that America’s population and economy are 10 times larger than Canada’s, but they will not be insignificant. When the impacts begin to be felt in the so-called red states that most fervently support the MAGA agenda, Trump will undoubtedly hear about it.

The U.S. Travel Association estimates that just a 10 per cent reduction in Canadian tourism would remove US$2.1 billion from the U.S. economy annually and could lead to the elimination of up to 14,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, the removal of U.S. products from liquor-store shelves across Canada — almost a certainty if Trump’s tariffs go ahead as threatened — would cost additional billions and would result in job losses in states such as Kentucky, whose whiskey exports to Canada are worth US$90 million annually.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

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There can be no winners in a trade war with the United States. Trump’s ill-considered decision to incite a cascade of reciprocally punitive measures — seemingly in every formerly friendly trade relationship the U.S. has enjoyed — will destabilize economies and result in something significantly more than the “short-term pain” Trump is now willing to concede Americans might feel after his tariff strategy is unleashed.

Average citizens are pawns in Trump’s game, but they are not powerless. Manitobans can, and should, use their pocketbooks to make their feelings known.

Each individual impact on Trump’s America will be minuscule, but the effect will be cumulative.

There’s also something to be said for what that redirected spending will do for the bottom lines of businesses whose roots are planted here at home.

Buy Canadian? Absolutely. And bye, American.