A ‘Buy Canadian’ consumer's guide to fighting Trump's 50% tariffs

Fifty per cent tariffs on billions of dollars of Canadian goods went into effect over the weekend after Canada-United States trade talks collapsed on Friday. The list of targeted goods features a diverse range of items, from natural honey to hockey sticks, jewellery, cut flowers, wine and a variety of other goods, many produced by smaller businesses.

Canadians expressed outrage at reports of U.S. economic bullying in the talks, with 76 per cent of respondents to an Angus Reid Institute poll Sunday saying the government was right to walk away.

For the businesses affected, the tariffs are expected to bring real economic pain. “It’s going to be devastating … if this continues,” Toronto retail analyst Bruce Winder said Monday.

Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said the new tariffs hit “smack in the centre of small-business trade,” adding that 20 per cent of CFIB members export to the U.S. and at least 40 per cent of those businesses are in the line of fire from the new tariffs.

Winder said channelling consumer outrage into Buy Canadian sentiment could soften the blow.

“We’re pretty angry right now,” he said.

Kelly also urged Canadian consumers to buy local as much as possible — by purchasing Canadian-made items from a Canadian retailer, or as a second option, foreign-made goods (outside of the U.S.) sold by a Canadian retailer.

Here’s a look at some Canadian producers and retailers affected by the new tariffs and the Buy Canadian opportunities they present for consumers.

Summer’s Gold Honey Co., which sells honey and beeswax products out of Merlin, Ont., was still reeling from the effect of Trump’s 2025 “Liberation Day” tariffs when the new 50 per cent tariffs hit this weekend.

Owner Mike Davidson said he was “livid” when he heard. Last year’s tariffs and the elimination of the de minimis exemption effectively ended his U.S. sales, putting a $50,000 dent in revenues that typically ranged from $300,000 to $500,000. Now he expects the new levies could eliminate the approximately 12 million pounds of honey that get exported from Canada into the U.S. annually, creating the potential for an over-saturated market here.

He worries that larger Western Canadian producers will try to sell their product in Ontario, the biggest domestic market for honey, which would put downward pressure on prices and impact smaller businesses such as his.

Davidson is working to get Summer’s Gold honey into more major grocery stores, and its products can also be found at some local retailers, as well as the company’s online store.

He encouraged people to buy Canadian: “We’re being attacked, and fighting back is the only option.”

Painted Rock Estate Winery in Penticton, B.C., was started by Lauren Skinner Buksevics’s parents in 2004 and currently produces around 6,500 cases a year. The business sells predominantly within Canada, with only one to two per cent exported to the U.S., but Buksevics, managing director of the winery, said the southern market is incredibly important to brand building in the world of wine.