One year on, Buy Canadian remains a real force, but affordability limits its reach
A year after Trump’s return to the White House, many Canadians still prioritise Canadian goods, but inflation and uneven incomes have turned retail into a two-tier market.
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By Torontoer Staff
One year after Donald Trump returned to the White House and launched a series of trade measures, the Buy Canadian movement remains active. Retail analysts and surveys show that many Canadians prefer Canadian products, but higher prices and squeezed incomes are preventing a full shift away from American goods.
The movement has been most visible in groceries and alcohol, and it has prompted marketing campaigns from domestic retailers. At the same time, lower- and middle-income shoppers are increasingly turning to discount stores, creating what one retail expert calls a two-tier market.
Affordability shapes how people buy Canadian
Retail analyst Bruce Winder says the initial surge in Buy Canadian support has not faded in the 12 months since Jan. 20, 2025, when Trump took office and announced tariffs that prompted consumer pushback in Canada. The sentiment remains, he said, but economic reality matters.
Folks thought it would wane a little bit, sort of about a year ago after the trade dispute started, that it would sort of taper off after a few weeks or months. But, according to all the research I’ve read, it’s still fairly strong.
Bruce Winder, retail analyst
Winder points to inflation and stagnant wages relative to rising rents, which limit some consumers’ ability to prioritise Canadian-made goods. That pressure has split the market: higher-income shoppers continue to spend, while others migrate to discount chains such as No Frills and Dollarama.
The trade war has turned Canada’s retail market into a two-tiered economy. That dictates what products, what retailers, what services, are doing well, versus which ones are struggling.
Bruce Winder
Groceries and liquor have led the shift
Food was one of the first categories to show a clear shift toward Canadian brands. Major grocers reported early lifts in sales of national products, and some retailers used Buy Canadian as a marketing angle. Grocery chains with strong national brands, including Loblaws, saw early increases in demand.
Alcohol sales also shifted north. A Nanos Research survey found almost three quarters of Canadians supported keeping U.S. liquor out of government-owned stores, a stance seen by some consumers as a leverage point against U.S. policy. The response, however, varied by province. Alberta’s private liquor market began reintroducing U.S. products in June, with other provinces following in October.
Travel and tourism: fewer trips to the U.S.
The preference for Canadian goods has extended to travel. Statistics Canada reported that return trips by Canadian residents from the United States fell for the 12th consecutive month. In December, return trips by air were down 18.7 percent year over year, while return trips by automobile were down 30.7 percent.
International sympathy, and its limits
The Buy Canadian sentiment has found some support outside Canada. Pierre Kiel, a German-Danish student quoted by CTV, said people in Germany and Denmark have a similar response to U.S. tariff rhetoric and the recent American interest in Greenland. Kiel said that stance informed his decision not to study in the United States while Trump was in office.
We kind of feel like the Canadians and the Danes and also the Germans kind of have the same lingering sentiment against Trump, because he’s quite aggressive in terms of his tariffs and all of that. Internationally speaking, we all see how Canada gets impacted, but also our economy, and therefore we choose to ignore the American products.
Pierre Kiel, German-Danish student
That international sympathy mainly registers as selective avoidance rather than a broad trade realignment. Choices made by individual shoppers and some retailers have symbolic value, but large-scale changes in supply chains and pricing depend on policy and market forces.
What this means for shoppers and retailers
- Two-tier market: premium and value segments are diverging, with different retailers benefiting.
- Groceries and liquor remain the most visible categories for Buy Canadian marketing.
- Travel declines suggest an ongoing consumer-level response to U.S. policy and rhetoric.
- Price and income constraints limit the reach of Buy Canadian to households that can afford potentially higher-priced domestic products.
- Retailers are adjusting assortments and advertising to capture both patriotic preference and price-sensitive demand.
For consumers, the practical choice often comes down to price and availability. For retailers, the challenge is to balance national branding with competitive pricing. Until there is a durable trade agreement or a clear shift in economic conditions, the Buy Canadian movement will likely remain a persistent, though uneven, feature of the retail landscape.
Buy Canadianretailconsumer behaviourtradeTrumpgroceriesliquortravel
