How Canadians are making their anger towards the US loud and clear

TORONTO – Canada is not known for making a fuss, with niceness essentially part of its national brand.

Not anymore. Canadians are angry, and they are showing it.

Threats by US President Donald Trump to

impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian exports

and to annex the country have set off cascades of fury.

“Do you know how angry you have to be with the United States to intentionally go out and purchase Canadian-made toothpaste? Because I’m there,” Ms Janel Comeau, a Canadian illustrator and writer based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, posted on the social platform X.

The call to rally against Mr Trump has helped unify provinces across the political spectrum, including Quebec, which has long defended its French identity. Recent polls have shown national pride in the province has risen.

Even Americans, who rarely pay attention to matters north of the border, are taking note, with Canadian discontent becoming a regular talking point among US television personalities.

“You know it’s bad when you’ve upset the Canadians,” Mr Seth Meyers, the host of Late Night, said on X.

Here are some ways Canadians are manifesting their displeasure.

Made in America? Back on the shelf it goes

Product labels have come under perhaps unprecedented scrutiny by Canadian shoppers.

Grocery stores have plastered item displays with made-in-Canada signage. Responding to consumer demand, developers have rolled out applications, like Maple Scan and Buy Beaver, that allow shoppers to scan a product’s bar code and learn its origins.

Canadians are also flooding social media forums to trade tips on amending grocery lists: ditch the Coca-Cola in favour of Canada Dry ginger ale (though despite the name, it is owned by an American company); forgo Colgate toothpaste for toothpaste made by the Green Beaver Company; and skip the Kellogg’s cornflakes and instead pick up Nature’s Path granola.

“Before, I would just go for what suits my pocketbook the best, and now I’m making a point,” said Mr Bill Fukazawa, who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

“If there’s a Canadian choice, I’m going to make a Canadian choice.”

Mr Fukazawa, who runs a food channel on YouTube called Maplecook, said he was willing to sacrifice the authentic American ingredients to make his favourite food, Kansas City-style barbecue, as a form of protest.

“There’s an overwhelming feeling in Canada of betrayal,” he said. “There is no country closer to us than the United States.”

Snowbirds seek sun elsewhere

Canadian travellers are redirecting their dollars to warm weather destinations outside the US, with some seasonal residents even selling properties.

Although the trade feud is helping to fuel this, the weak Canadian dollar is also playing a role.

Canada is the leading country of origin for foreign tourists to the US, according to the US Travel Association, an industry group.

In 2024, Canadians made over 20 million visits to the US and spent US$20.5 billion (S$27.7 billion).

Before spring break for schools across Canada, there are signs that Canadians are heeding the suggestions of Canadian officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to rethink their vacation plans.

A Feb 27 survey by the tourism industry alliance in Quebec, a province that makes up a sizeable portion of Canada’s snowbirds, found that half of travellers who planned to visit the US in 2025 said they had cancelled their trips.

Tourists to the US from Quebec spend about US$6 billion annually, according to the alliance.

Ms Janet DePerry, a real estate broker in Dana Point, California, said she had fielded urgent requests in recent months from two clients who wanted to sell homes they owned in California – one in Palm Desert and the other in Orange County.

How eager were they to sell? “I told them what their house was worth, and they chose to list it for US$50,000 less,” Ms DePerry said. “I couldn’t say ‘I’m sorry’ enough to these people.”

Hockey fans dim a Canadian legend’s star

Hockey fans in Canada were overjoyed after the country beat the US in February in an inaugural four-nation championship. What would have normally been relatively friendly round-robin games for global bragging rights turned into icy geopolitical theatre.

“You can’t take our country – and you can’t take our game,” Mr Trudeau wrote in a post on X after the final game, which included Canadian fans booing The Star-Spangled Banner.

Many Canadian hockey fans also trained their ire against their country’s most famous hockey player – Mr Wayne Gretzky, who was Canada’s honorary captain for the four-nation tournament.

Mr Gretzky had already ruffled some Canadian feathers by attending Mr Trump’s inauguration in January and remaining silent about the President wanting to make Canada the 51st state.

Then, at the tournament, he did not wear a Canada team jersey or any other red-and-white apparel.

Mr Gretzky has said nothing about the backlash but Mr Trump has come to his defence.

“He’s the Greatest Canadian of them all, and I am therefore making him a ‘free agent’, because I don’t want anyone in Canada to say anything bad about him,” Mr Trump said in a social media post.

Goodbye, ‘Americano’. Hello, ‘Canadiano’

The first few letters of “Americano” had been wiped off the chalkboard menu of Morning Owl, an Ottawa, Ontario, coffee shop tucked away in a government building.

At a friend’s suggestion, the owner, Mr Todd Simpson, replaced the wording to read “Canadiano”. It’s written in red, with a maple leaf next to it for good measure.

Mr Simpson’s gesture has drawn intense media attention and, he said, has lured locals and tourists into his off-the-beaten-path shop to show their support for Canada.

Coffee shops in other parts of the country have also stopped using Americano as part of their menu.

“It’s just something to lighten up this horrible thing that’s happening right now between the two countries,” Mr Simpson said. “It’s a shame that all this is going on.”

Canadians turn to sketch TV to laugh it off

Actor Mark Critch delighted viewers with his impressions of Mr Trump during the President’s first term on the Canadian sketch comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes, which is shown on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the national broadcaster.

Mr Critch has reprised the role, to even bigger audiences, after Mr Trump’s re-election in November.

“Times of confusion and uncertainty are great for comedy,” said CBC spokeswoman Kaari Sinnaeve, “especially now for ‘22 Minutes’, with so much material and audiences hungry for a comedic take.”
NYTIMES