Unless you’re living under a rock, you should know by now that the new U.S. administration has imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. Canada has responded in kind and I won’t get into Canada’s tariffs but I will get into research into what some Canadians are suggesting at taking action.
The follow is information posted by someone on Reddit named Zarftruck in the /r/Canada subreddit. I was reading through the forum to gauge the response and the impact to S&P companies.
Hello r/Canada
Long-time reader, first-time poster.
With Trump arbitrarily imposing tariffs on Canadian products and services, apparently as a starting point of a bigger economic war and possible annexation of Canada, now is the time for Canadians to stand together against his aggression. This post is meant to be practical, actionable ideas for all Canadians to resist Trump’s tariffs. Let’s send the message to Trump: if you don’t want to do business with Canada, you have no business here at all.
This is also a starting point. It’s unlikely that anyone will be able to do all of these things, all of the time, but the more people who do them, and the more of them we do, the bigger the impact will be. Many of the suggested Canadian alternatives are not present in every province. Please add your feedback and other ideas in the comments, and I will try to update the post.
Don’t shop at American-owned stores.Not all of the alternatives are Canadian-owned; they are simply not American. You can also just shop local, as many Canadians own non-chain businesses providing these goods and services
Retail and consumer goods
Amazon → depends what you’re buying, but there are always alternatives Walmart → Loblaws, Metro, Canadian Tire Costco → Federated Co-op, Bulk Barn (you might disagree with this; Costco is standing up to Trump, and sells many Canadian products in its stores) Home Depot, Lowes -> Home Hardware Nike → Lululemon, Roots, Nobis Levi’s → Naked & Famous
Food and beverage
McDonald’s, Wendy’s, KFC, Five Guys → Harvey's, A&W Canada, Burger’s Priest, Hero Certified Burgers Starbucks → Tim Hortons (though now Brazilian-owned), Second Cup, Bridgehead, Country Style, Coffee Time, Deville KFC, Popeyes → your local ma and pa chicken place Subway → Mr. Sub Krispy Kreme → Beavertails Chipotle → Freshii Taco Bell → Mucho Burrito, Bar Burrito Domino’s, Little Caesar’s → Pizza Pizza, Pizza Nova Dairy Queen → Chapman’s Ice Cream, Laura Secord, Kawartha Dairy Denny’s, IHOP → Sunset Grill, Humpty’s or Cora’s Applebee’s, Chili’s → Montana’s, Kelsey’s Olive Garden → East Side Mario’s Buffalo Wild Wings → St. Louis Bar & Grill Outback Steakhouse, Texas Roadhouse, Ruth’s Chris → The Keg, Chop, Hy’s P.F. Chang’s → Manchu Wok or Congee Queen
Don’t buy American goods.
This will be difficult, because so many of our day-to-day consumer products are owned by American companies. That said, the big Canadian grocery and drug store chains have their own-brand “generic” versions of most of these American products, which are probably cheaper than the brand-name versions. When in doubt, check the label.
Procter & Gamble (Tide, Gillette, Pampers, etc.) → Attitude (Canadian), Green Beaver (Canadian) Johnson & Johnson (Tylenol, Band-Aid, Aveeno, etc.) → Life Brand (Shoppers Drug Mart), Jamieson Vitamins, Rexall Colgate-Palmolive (Colgate toothpaste, Irish Spring, Softsoap, etc.) → Green Beaver Unilever (Dove, Hellmann’s, etc.) → Canadian soap makers, President’s Choice Mayo Coca-Cola (includes Dasani, Powerade, etc.) → Canada Dry, PC Cola, Clearly Canadian PepsiCo (includes Lay’s, Gatorade, Quaker, Tropicana, etc.) → Old Dutch, Kiju, Nature’s Path Kraft Heinz (Kraft Dinner, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, etc.) → Lactalis (Black Diamond, Cracker Barrel), PC Mac & Cheese Campbell’s Soup → Habitant (by Loblaws), Baxters Hershey’s (Reese’s, Twizzlers, etc.) → Cadbury (UK), Nestlé (Switzerland), Canadian chocolate makers (Purdy’s, Laura Secord) Mars (M&M’s, Snickers, etc.) → Cadbury, Canadian brands like Ganong Mondelez (Oreo, Ritz, Triscuit, etc.) → Dare, local bakeries General Mills (Cheerios, Nature Valley, etc.) → Nature’s Path (Canadian), Love Grown
Use Canadian transportation
Gas: Esso, Chevron, and Shell → Petro-Canada and Husky Rides: Uber and Lyft → Use local taxi services (e.g., Beck Taxi, TappCar) or transit
Don’t buy American services.
Hard to avoid some of these, but not impossible.
Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+ → Crave, CBC Gem, CBC Kids Hollywood (Warner Bros, Universal, etc.) → try some Canadian cinema like TIFF films or the Banff Mountain Films Google Drive, Dropbox → Sync.com, Proton Drive (Swiss) Twitter/X (stay away, since it’s owned by Elon Musk) → Bluesky, Mastodon Electronic Arts (video games) → Ubisoft Montreal
Don’t buy American cars, or at least buy a car made in Canada.
It’s obviously impossible to buy a car without any American parts. But, if you’re buying new, at least support Canadian auto workers.
Non-American cars made in Canada:
Honda CR-V Toyota RAV4 Lexus RX
Foreign car companies to consider — but check if their cars are assembled in the US:
Honda & Toyota – Strong presence in Canada (CR-V, RAV4, and Lexus RX are built in Ontario). Mazda, Subaru, Nissan (includes Infiniti), Hyundai (includes Genesis), Kia – Mostly Japanese or Korean, no American ownership. Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo – European and not American-owned.
American cars assembled in Canada:
Chrysler 300 Dodge Charger, Dodge Challenger Ford Edge, Lincoln Nautilus Ram 1500 Ford Superduty Chevrolet Silverado GMC Sierra
American car brands to avoid (no manufacturing presence in Canada), other than the models assembled in Canada that are listed above:
Tesla - Obviously stay away from these, given Elon Musk’s role enabling Trump. Consider Polestar, Hyundai, Nissan, Volkswagen or Kia instead if looking to go electric Ford Chevrolet GMC Buick Cadillac Dodge Jeep Ram
Don’t go to America, but be friendly and welcoming to Americans
Cancel any vacations in the United States. There are plenty of things to see and do in Canada. Honestly, our dollar is likely to tank anyway, so American vacations are going to become more expensive Sell American properties. Get your money out while you still can. If it’s not Trump, then climate change will certainly destroy the value of properties in places that Canadians love to flock, including Florida, Palm Springs, and Arizona. (If extreme weather doesn’t destroy your property, the inability to get insurance certainly will reduce the property’s resale value!) Invite American friends and acquaintances to visit Canada. Tourism is one Canadian export that Trump cannot put tariffs on. Foreign visitors spend their money in our country. Welcome visiting Americans with open arms. Talk to them about how important Canada’s relationship with America is, and the importance of resisting Trump Send Canadian goods to American friends and relatives as gifts
Travel elsewhere
Fly on Canadian airlines
Air Canada WestJet Porter Lynx Flair Air Transat Sunwing
Avoid American airlines:
Delta American Airlines United Southwest JetBlue Alaska Hawaiian Spirit Frontier Allegiant
What else?
This game of chicken on all sides won’t end well. I suspected something like this might happen with the new administration and here we are and if it gets out of hand the next steps for American companies will be massive layoffs across these and other industries and companies. As for the S&P 500 and the companies listed above, expect lower earnings and the share value of these firms to drop.
Share The Wealth
Are you taking any preemptive actions on your investment portfolio? Let me know in the comments below.