Canadian Pride, International Boycotts

As I have been writing of late, the anger Canadians are feeling towards the U.S. is deep, extensive and profound. Many, many people (and I am one of them) are doing everything they can to boycott the purchase of American goods, refusing to travel to the U.S., and going out of their way to purchase Canadian goods. As citizens of our exceptional country, it is the least all of us can do.

I am also happy to post about the kind of support being offered by quintessentially Canadian companies. One in particular, Chapman's Ice Cream, is putting its money where its mouth is.

Chapman’s Ice Cream, the largest independent ice cream manufacturer in the country, is vowing not to increase prices for customers for the remainder of 2025 as U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada threatens to drive up the cost of American-made ingredients.

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“As a family we have decided to absorb all immediate increases in our costs due to the Trump tariffs for the rest of the year to maintain our prices,” Chapman’s chief operating officer Ashley Chapman said in a statement on social media.

“We are actively looking internationally for alternative suppliers of ingredients that are unavailable within Canada. We will continue to reinforce Canadian-first policies within our operations because together we are stronger.”

To me, Chapman's embodies what is best about Canada. You may recall that several years ago, when a fire gutted its production facility,  it continued to pay all of its employees and was back up and running within a few short weeks. As well, during the production of Covid-19 vaccines, it offered the use of its industrial freezers to store them. 

On another note, it also seems that much of the world is watching this the abusive behaviour of the U.S.,  and is taking appropriate action against the American ogre. 

A growing international move to boycott the US is spreading from Scandinavia to Canada to the UK and beyond as consumers turn against US goods.

Most prominent so far has been the rejection by European car buyers of the Teslas produced by Elon Musk, now a prominent figure in Trump’s administration as the head of the “department of government efficiency” a special group created by Trump that has contributed to the precipitous declines in Tesla’s share price. About 15% of its value was wiped out on Monday alone.

But it is not just Teslas experiencing consumer wrath. 

In Sweden, more than 70,000 users have joined a Facebook group calling for a boycott of US companies – ironically including Facebook itself – which features alternatives to US consumer products.

“I’ll replace as many American goods as I can and if many do so, it will clearly affect the supply in stores,” wrote one member of the group.

In Denmark, where there has been widespread anger over Trump’s threat to bring the autonomous territory of Greenland under US control, the largest grocery company, the Salling group, has said it will tag European-made goods with a black star to allow consumers to choose them over products made in the US.

 Takeshi Niinami, the chief executive of the Japanese multinational brewing and distilling group Suntory Holdings, which owns several major US brands, told the Financial Times international consumers were likely to shun American brands in the event of a trade war.

“We laid out the strategic and budget plan for 2025 expecting that American products, including American whiskey, will be less accepted by those countries outside of the US because of first, tariffs and, second, emotion,” Niinami said.

And it is likely to spread further still. Zoe Gardner, an organiser of the Stop Trump Coalition in the UK, is seeing rapidly increasing interest in the issue.

Asd I have said before, if there is a bright spot in all of this tariff madness, it is that we have rediscovered not only our pride but also the qualities that make us unique in the world. That other countries now are joining the battle against the Trumpian madness is just another benefit. 

Time To Come Home

It wasn't until Don Trump was elected the first time that I made the decision never to travel to the U.S. again, barring unforeseen, exigent circumstances. And it wasn't until that election that I started to look with a degree of disapproval upon those who seek refuge from our winters in places like Florida. 

By and large, Canadian snowbirds seemed either oblivious to, or willfully ignorant of, the implications of their travel patronage. The wallet often carries more weight than most other things, and opening that wallet to a Trump-loving Amerika strikes me as a form of endorsement of policies and values inimical to the majority of Canadians.

Now, however, events and a hostile atmosphere may be doing what moral suasion could not. First, a brief clip from Global News, detailing the experiences of a Moncton couple, Mary Ann and Mike Jeffries, who have been wintering in the Sunshine State for the past 15 years. This will have been their last visit when they return at the end of March.

Yet now comes news of another reason to avoid the benighted land to our south: the apparent requirement to register thanks to one of Trump's executive orders, entitled Protecting the American People from Invasion.

A U.S. crackdown on illegal immigration will affect many Canadian snowbirds who drive across the border, with officials requiring visitors staying for at least a month to register on the government’s website, says an immigration lawyer.

The executive order

directed the Department of Homeland Security to enforce requirements for “aliens” to register with the government under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Under the rules, those aged 14 and over must register, and parents and legal guardians must register their children if they are under 14, in both cases within 30 days of their stay in the U.S.

Many Canadian retirees are feeling “annoyed” about the new registration rules, says Rudy Buttignol, president of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP).

“Unfortunately, these moves by the United States is just one more irritant, especially for snowbirds that travel regularly down south,” Buttignol said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca from Vancouver on Monday. “The overwhelming reaction that we’re getting is that people are changing their travel plans. They’re not feeling welcome.

“People are cancelling their bookings if they can. And if they can’t, in many cases, people are already thinking about next year and what they’ll do.”

While registering may not be a big hassle, he said the new rules are just another “slap in the face” to Canadians.

We have seen a real resurgence of Canadian pride since the Americans began showing such massive disrespect for our country with the re-election of Trump. As outlined in recent posts, booze boycotts and concerted efforts to buy more Canadian products at the exclusion of American goods, are real manifestations of that pride.

Let's hope returning snowbirds will feel the same way.

 

Not Exactly As Advertised

 

The U.S. always touts itself as the greatest country in the world (if not in all of history). The nation bruits its achievements, its pool of talented citizens, its democracy (now it rapid decline) amongst its stellar achievements. However, one thing the nation lacks is any perspective or context outside its own self-proclaimed greatness, while the rest of the world has known, or is coming to know, the real state of nudity in which the emperor parades.

I was thinking about this last night as I watched the news. Each evening, Canadian channels warn of the hard times ahead should Trump's tariffs come into effect. However, frequently a counterbalance is offered through stories about how the American threat has affected the Canadian psyche, reflected specifically in our buying habits. Stories abound of angry, insulted Canadians cancelling travel to the U.S., along with their grocery purchasing choices - more and more Canadians are shunning, whenever possible, American products and buying more local and Canadian goods, When the latter is not possible, they are selecting non-U.S. products.

In Canadian grocery stores, United States-grown produce is wilting on the shelves. Local executives are scouring wine lists over dinner to avoid ordering California pinot.

“It speaks to an awareness — and an intention to vote with their wallets,” said Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute. A survey of 3,310 Canadians by the Vancouver-based research firm last week found that 85 per cent of people plan to replace U.S. products with alternatives. Nearly half of respondents said they would change their travel plans to avoid the country.

 Canadian airlines also have begun to scale back flights to the U.S. in anticipation of falling demand.

“One thing we can do is not give our dollars to the United States right now,” said Curtis Brown, principal at Winnipeg-based Probe Research, which found in a recent poll that more than six in 10 respondents are planning to avoid vacations to the U.S. Brown said his own daughter’s school division recently cancelled field trips to the country.

Clearly, Canadian pride has been massively reawakened, and that reawakening is likely to be long-term. Although I am an inveterate cynic, I see here renewed hope that as a nation we realize what a jewel our way of life is. Certainly, we justifiably carp about its many inadequacies, but undeniable is that we have a system predicated on the wellbeing of the collective, not just the individual.

I was reminded of this while watching a story about the upcoming Oscars, juxtaposed against the devastation of the California wildfires. One young couple, who work in the film industry, capture the precariousness of life in the United States at the 16:35 mark of the following:

As explained above, if this young couple does not work a certain number of hours, they don't have any health insurance. This is but a brief window into what many Americans face and what Canadians are spared.

Yes, we have doctor shortages, we have hallway medicine, we have many without family physicians. But what we don't have is a society that essentially tells us to sink or swim, as is the case with the 'great' American project.

So I am happy and grateful that we live in Canada, to me the best country in the world. And I will do everything I can as a citizen to make sure that will always be the case.

Standing Resolute

Amidst the talk of annexing Canada, the premiers marched to Washington to meet with White House officials. Afterwards,. James Blair, Trump's deputy chief of staff for legislative affairs, had this to say:

Blair posted on social media that his meeting with the premiers was "pleasant" but also said he "never agreed that Canada would not be the 51st state."

"We only agreed to share Premier Eby's comments," Blair wrote.

How about either or both of these as an answer to Mr. Trump and his acolytes? 

H/t Moudakis

Or, put another way: