Canadians hold an “elbows up” protest against U.S. tariffs and other policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, March 22, 2025.
Carlos Osorio | Reuters
For Lisa Mcbean, buying American-made snacks and traveling to the United States was second nature. This changed for Ontario residents starting in early 2025.
Since then, the 54-year-old man checks if products are made in Canada before buying them at the grocery store. Mcbean canceled several trips to the United States that she had planned for concerts. The once-common jaunts across the border for shopping are now off the table.
The reason: the American president Donald Trumprepeated calls from Canada become the 51st American state. Her prices on the country’s exports added salt to the wound, she said.
“Enough is enough,” Mcbean told CNBC. “Why must we make you great again at our expense?”
Mcbean’s rejection fits into broader context boycott by Canadians furious about Trump’s levies and sovereignty claims. What was initially a unusual wave of Canadian patriotism A year ago, the situation transformed into a new social and economic order for this country of 41 million inhabitants.
This shift has affected everything from the brands Canadians buy to where they vacation and how they vote. There are economic implications on both sides of the border that policymakers take into account. Polls suggest that altered behavior won’t change anytime soon.
“Canadians have remained loyal,” said Steve Mossop, executive vice-president of Leger, a Montreal-based polling service. “The biggest surprise is how adamant Canadians are about refusing to support the United States in any form.”
Data shows Canadians continue to spend with their “elbows raised” » – a hockey term that has become a slogan for resistance to American pressure.
Thin iceCanada was the second largest trading partner of the United States in 2025, the Census Bureau reported. But economists warn that old relationships are slipping on ice. Excluding the pandemic, the percentage of Canadian imports from the United States reached a record high last year.
“We have always viewed the United States as a very strong and reliable ally,” said Michael Devereux, an economics professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. “It really took a beating last year.”
Canadians began shifting their food purchases from the United States starting in early 2025, a data analysis released last month from Bank of Canada find. National brands gained market share as retailers and liquor stores encouraged shoppers to buy Canadian products instead.
Central bank researchers called this a structural change in the national economy resulting directly from increased trade tensions. The transformation could have impacts on Canada’s inflation and the composition of its gross domestic product, they said.
A sign reading “Buy Canadian Instead” is displayed on the top of bottles, hanging above another sign reading “American Whiskey”, after the five largest US alcohol brands were removed from sale at a British Columbia liquor store, as part of a response to US President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on Canadian products, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, February 2, 2025.
Chris Helgren | Reuters
Last year, the Bank of Canada already began asking consumers about their purchases of American goods and their travel spending in the United States as part of its flagship consumer survey.
More than three in five Canadians said they avoid buying alcohol or products made in the United States, a study finds. January survey of more than 2,600 consumers by Léger, Canada’s largest market research and analysis company. More than half said they tried not to buy from U.S.-based retailers or websites.
Most Canadians said they would continue to avoid American goods and services over the next six months, Léger found.
Name change At Great American Backrub stores in Toronto, President Nazir Lalani put up signs highlighting the chain’s Canadian ownership. After using the name for a quarter of a century, Lalani is considering dropping the American affiliation.
At the turn of the century, “anything American was very popular in Canada. There was a lot of power behind it,” Lalani said. “Now it’s very different.”
The Great American Backrub in Toronto.
Courtesy: The Great American Backrub
Canadians’ anger comes from Trump’s bravado that the country could be pushed into becoming part of America by “economic force”. Trump has repeatedly called the Canadian prime minister a “governor” And imposed tariffs on its exports.
“The administration will continue to protect American interests by leveraging American economic power,” a White House official said in a written statement to CNBC. More than a fifth of the Canadian economy depends on exports to the United States and the majority of the population lives within 100 miles of the border, the official noted.
That of Prime Minister Mark Carney election victory last year was widely seen as a referendum on Trump’s bluster about Canadian sovereignty. Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England, gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, widely interpreted as a rebuke of U.S. policy. The same month, Canada and China reached a preliminary trade agreement.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a portrait unveiling ceremony of former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, February 3, 2026.
Patrick Doyle | Reuters
Most recently, Carney this week completed a world tour where he met with international leaders and strengthened business alliances. He I skipped the United States
Goodbye AmericaThe people of the Great White North are not just aiming to “buy Canada.” They also say “goodbye America”.
Round-trip travel by Canadians from the United States by air plunged nearly 18% during the year until January, noted the Canadian government. Airlines plan to offer 11% fewer seats from Canada to popular snowbird destinations in Arizona and Florida this year, according to flight data from aviation data provider Cirium.
Drive-throughs by Canadians from the United States fell nearly 27% year-over-year in January. Canadians are spending more on domestic travel, said Nathan Janzen, deputy chief economist at the Royal Bank of Canada.
In Las Vegas, Caesars And MGM Executives acknowledged there were fewer visitors from Canada during calls with analysts last year. Decline in tourist traffic hurt sales at some retailers Maine And North Dakotathe United States Federal Reserve said in his Beige Book.
Canadian bookings to U.S. mountain destinations tracked by Inntopia Business Intelligence fell more than 45% in January 2026 compared to the same month a year ago.
At Jay Peak in northern Vermont, there is a notable absence of the Canadian school trips that previously helped fill the 3,800-foot mountain and associated water park, said general manager Steve Wright. Canadian hockey teams skipped tournaments held at the complex’s indoor rink.
People ski at Jay Peak in Jay, VT.
Courtesy:
Canadians made up about 5% of attendees at the Folk Alliance International industry conference in New Orleans in January, compared to more than 17% in other years. Several Canadian companies have chosen not to sponsor the folk music-focused convention this year.
“We completely understand why they choose not to come to the United States,” said Jennifer Roe, executive director of the Kansas City-based nonprofit.
‘Time out’ Canadians are among the the biggest foreign buyers of American real estate, according to the National Association of Realtors. But according to Redfin, nearly 18% fewer Canadian users viewed U.S. real estate listings in February compared to the same month last year.
A man holds a Canadian flag as people demonstrate in solidarity with Canada amid uncertainty over tariff policy, near the Canada-U.S. border crossing in Buffalo, New York, United States, April 2, 2025.
Lindsay Dédario | Reuters
Deborah Marling, an Ontario-based office manager, sold her second home in Sarasota, Florida, last year. Since then, she has increased her domestic travel and vacationed in Costa Rica rather than heading to the American sun belt. While Marling usually visits her brother in Atlanta every spring, this year she expects him to head north instead.
“People have always viewed relations with the United States as a matter of cousinhood or friendship,” Marling said. “It’s a bit like we’re in ‘dead time’ right now.”
Canadians are closely following the results of renegotiations for the Canada, United States and Mexico Agreement – or CUSMA – which will take place this year. They will monitor the one in November United States midterm elections to see if a change in leadership in Congress could limit Trump’s power.
The Canucks told CNBC their outrage was aimed at the U.S. federal government, not the average American. Yet their fury is palpable: in 2025, the percentage of Canadians with an “unfavorable” view of the United States has reached its highest level since January 1, 2025. Pew Research Center began to ask the question in 2002.
Yet Canadians have reason to hope for a return to warmer economic relations. Canadian companies always seek the depth of American financial markets and try to attract their huge consumer market. Canada has the ninth largest economy in the world; America is number one.
“We need each other,” said Chris Agro, a 46-year-old Canadian who works in manufacturing. “We are still our closest neighbors. That will never change.”
But others, like Ontario’s Mcbean, don’t see the relationship returning to what it was.
“The damage is already done,” Mcbean said. “It’s no longer a boycott. It’s a change. It’s a divorce.”
— CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.
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