The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday, July 1, edition that in February, 2025, choosing a product designed, grown or manufactured in Canada became a rallying cry across the land as the United States unleashed a barrage of tariffs on Canadian meat, metals, trucks and a rolling list of items that could change daily.
The Globe's Mariya Postelnyak writes that avoiding U.S. goods proved harder than expected. What has struck Ms. Postelnyak most of late is how little grocery retailers or brands themselves are boasting about their Canadian origins. Gone are the bright red signs pointing toward Canadian products that appeared in the months after the Buy Canadian movement kicked off.
Perhaps, after a year of getting help shopping Canadian, retailers and brands expected our training wheels to come off.
Grocers have suggested as much. Empire announced in March it was removing signage meant to highlight Canadian products.
"Canadians are, now more than ever, well informed in assessing country of origin when making their purchasing decisions based on package labelling," said Luc L'Archeveque, Empire's chief customer officer at the time.
Canadian spending on U.S. goods and services dropped by tens of billions last year.
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