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.
“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.
