Avoiding US goods and services – from tech to whisky to air travel – has forced many to find a new way of living
This week the US imposed 50% tariffs on US$20bn (£15bn) of Canadian goods, and Mark Carney, the country’s prime minister, has vowed to match them “dollar for dollar” after the collapse of trade talks between the two countries last weekend. Donald Trump retaliated on Thursday by ordering the federal government to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America.
Such actions have added fuel to a widespread boycott of US products and services by Canadians that began early last year in response to the president’s trade war and threats to annex his northern neighbour.
More than 3,500 people from across Canada shared with the Guardian via an online callout how they have made changes to their lives in response to the US administration’s political and economic stance. Many expressed deep anger and sadness, but remained resolute that this was now a new way of living.
Nobody really cares about 10,000 people boycotting anything… 😆
If it’s american I dick it lick it ship it.
For anyone interested about companies that have made massive strides since the tariffs:
alt for google : proton (switzerland)
alt browser: vivaldi (norway/germany)
alt search engine : qwant (france)
alt for note taking : joplin(england)
alt for win : lunix. (global) -free
alt for mfp: kazio (new zealand)
alt for fitbit : polar (finland)
alt for phones : fairphone (netherlands /china)
alt for github : codeberg (germany)
alt for amazon : shop app (shopify canada)
alt for music : deezer (france)
for books : kobo (canada)
alt for ms office : libreoffice (germany) free
alt card wallet : catima
alt for streaming : make a jellyfin server - free (throw it on ubuntu (england) start hosting your own stuff local). i suppose also plex but that is a californian company.
alt to paypal : klarna (europe) - that said we still do need more ecommerce to be supportive of alternatives for this and card wallets other than google pay. this is really lagging behind.
Most companies deliver now. So you can just shop online at local stores and have things delivered instead of using Amazon.
Ups for Deezer! I’ve been using for over 3 years. Good stuff!
Man, fuck Shopify. Tobin is a shitsmear of a human.
If you look at all the current e-commerce alternatives : they are all dirt to dirt. shop just doesnt happen to be american dirt if you’re attempting the route of voting with the wallet.
unless you have a good alternative. i’ll wait for you to post it to help others find better options.
No you’re right. I’m being totally serious when I say we can’t swap platforms each time a CEO comes out as a fascist. It’s just too troublesome because we could be doing actual good instead of looking for another obscure platform that doesn’t quite meet our needs.
I’m just lucky because I’m in Japan and I have some more alternatives, but even something like Rakuten is probably not 100% fascism-free (iirc, their mobile segment has a contract with Starlink).
yeah it seems no matter what they are all in bed with eachother. it’s a real thin plank we walk here. i am just hopeful we see more alternatives spring up that throw this power ball off it’s tracks or another election settles it a bit easier for more alternatives.
hopefully Canada can get closer ties to europe (who i understand are not perfect either) but as far as sustainable survival would likely be a more comfortable fit.
Another one? Do we mass produce these assholes for some reason? Because I feel that somewhere along the production line there is fat to trim.
I think it’s just really hard to be a big tech CEO unless you’re willing to shit down many people’s throats.
Don’t forget to blame people for putting shit in your pants. That is a key skill.
Many such cases.
“I think you need to be in Canada to understand how deep the animosity to the US is”
I too have deep animosity for the US, and I live here
You need to be in Canada to understand how deep the animosity to the US is.
You are free to leave.
Not really though. Other countries don’t take Americans like Americans take others. Funny that.
I’ve lived in 16 coutnries. So yes, many do.
Well Americans don’t take others any more ether, unless your white and from South Africa or something…
I have never understood this idea since no you are not.
Its a bit harder to emigrate then us people seem to think, less so without skills in demand (and lets face it americans are not super well known for being good workers these days).
I’ve spend decades working overseas. I’ve taught English, I’ve worked offshore oil, I was even involved in a few Sino-American joint ventures during my stint in China.
And I’ll show you plenty of Americans busting their asses working two jobs (and doing gig work on the side) to keep a roof over their (and their childrens) heads. Rent ain’t free in America, neither is the food, you gotta work to pay for it. And if an employer thinks you’re not cutting the mustard, this ain’t England or Canada, they can just lay you off on the spot. Because underperformance counts as a cost cut. So please, keep you BS opinions on “American laziness” to yourself. Frankly, outside of government workers, I don’t know any adult that isn’t busting their ass right now to stay afloat.
this ain’t England or Canada, they can just lay you off on the spot.
HA HA HA HA.
Oh shit you are serious!
England still has legal requirements for companies to address government before they commence a layoff, and Canada still puts the Queen on their money.
Yes, I am serious.
As opposed to a large eye above a pyramid.
and Canada still puts the Queen on their money.
And? What does that have to do with paying taxes as an ex pat from the states? You are a pariah state, and also have to notify the government about layoffs (its called WARN). Oh but please brag more about how shit your nation is, I am sure I will be humbled into compliance.
I thought we were talking about whether Canada and the UK can fire people at will like in the US…
I live in the States now (have since 2013). And here’s what’ll blow you mind about me –
Passport stolen in Cambodia while I was teaching English there. Can’t bank or leave there without one, can’t get a job, can’t receive money via Western Union (even if I’d had family willing to send the stuff), can’t do anything but go hungry and learn to live like most Cambodians actually do. I walked the Mekong to South Vietnam entirely, made friends I still talk to, and survived. The US Embassy wouldn’t do squat for me because I didn’t have my birth certificate. It wasn’t until I almost died that I was finally repatriated. And when I finally was, I landed at LAX in the middle of December in 30F weather wearing nothing but a pair of shorts, t-shirt, and bamboo flip-flops. No shit. No job. No home. No family. Homeless and cold.
So I hitchhiked. To Florida. Hitchhiked back to Southern California (twice) for my birth certificate, when you’re homeless your documents are the first thing that gets stolen. I took odd jobs, worked a summer season at Yellowstone National Park, hitchhiked a few more years, got into offshore oil and gas, then started falling down (without the benefit of being drunk!). Eventually got on Medicaid (took forever), got an MRI (or four), and was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and CES. So game over for me on the labor front. Or just about anything that requires lifting, standing, or even most sedentary work.
So I spent another decade homeless and hitchhiking. I’m heading to Texas next week, still fighting a VA PTSD claim and an SSI disability claim. I finally have a lawyer for both. Hitchhiking introduced me to offshore work, and then later house-sitting work once I couldn’t do that anymore. I now have cash clients in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Colorado and Montana. All obtained while homeless. And in the process, I went from no address and no credit to 5 major credit cards and a high-700 FICO score.
So if anyone here should bitch about their circumstances, it’s me. America is not perfect. But I don’t need permission to go work in a different city or state, I can vote, I can just decide I don’t like it here and leave. And go anywhere I want minus the real pariah states like North Korea, Russia, Syria or Iran.
I went from 110 pounds (I’m 5’9") when I left Cambodia to 165 pounds today. Credit cards, house sittings, and hopefully a safety net that will eventually come through.
Most countries don’t have half that.
Is America perfect? No. But it (and its people) are not near as bad as the idiots in this thread are pretending it to be.
If it were that bad, I would have left again years ago. I stay for a reason. And that reason is because it’s genuinely better than the 16 other countries I’ve lived in.
Have a nice day!
I would, but I can’t just cross the border and declare myself a citizen of another country
So, no, I’m not. I’m kind of stuck here
Trust me, if England or Canada or Australia or Switzerland or France or Germany, etc… said I was free to live there for the rest of my life, I’d start packing my shit tonight
Know plenty Americans who stay 3 months in Schengen and 3 months in Ireland/Serbia. They go back and forth not to surpass the tourist visa limit indefinitely.
But that’s mostly because they want to keep working in the US remotely. Otherwise, you can just get a job elsewhere and generally it’s not to difficult to get a residency permit with a job.
Forget Switzerland. You can’t afford it. Also they are very weird. You know, isolation does things to people.
I taught English in Asia for 10 years. For most countries, you just need to have an employable skill they need (Canada in particular likes tech workers, China, Vietnam and South Korea love oral English teachers, as do many Middle East countries like the UAE or even Turkey). Or, if you have a decent enough pension check, they’ll let you move right in and grant you residency. So no, you’re not “stuck” here. Your brain might be “stuck”, but you certainly aren’t. As well, you can set up a joint-venture business a citizen in a different nation, and your business visa can be converted to a residence visa if the venture proves successful.
And a big thanks to the downvoters – always finding reasons to hate!
I upvoted everything and everyone in this thread for the record. Keep fighting, it’s a good fight and makes me think.
My age is a bit of a factor
I also have a family so it’s not just me
I’ve looked. Nothing too crazy but I’ve explored the idea of getting my child out of a part of the world where people think teachers should have guns
I met plenty of people who were older, married, with kids who taught English overseas. No different than teaching here (except for the food, which in many cases was better than here!). Seriously.
But you are clearly writing over-generalization checks that life refuses to cash. SOME Americans think teachers should have guns, and they have their reasons. MOST Americans don’t want guns in the classrooms for obvious reasons. Everyone has a right to their beliefs and opinions. Nobody deserves to be generalized or compartmentalized into a group. You just did both.
Personally, I think you’re converting your own lack of follow-through for your own family’s future into misplaced contempt for a nation that (unlike most) will actually allow you to leave. You said earlier that you can’t just “show up and be a citizen” in other countries (because they have rules), and tried to blame America for it. Then, when I showed you that you could, you said “it’s not for me” and then expressed even more contempt for the country I just gave you a way out of.
Grow up. Quit bitching.
I’m trying to go to England, not Singapore. Pretty sure they don’t need Americans to teach the English how to speak English
I never said anything about Singapore so please quit lying and putting words in my mouth I never said (although I did date an incredible girl from there, I just liked Malaysia better). And as Singapore was an English colony (prior to the American colonies), they already speak English better than you and I ever will.
Are you really trying to blame America because England spoke English before America even existed? Just wow…
Don’t tell them that, they likely think that they do. They also seem to think a temp job overseas is the same as emigrating.
same here
If there is one thing US citizens and non-US citizens can agree upon, it’s that the US can fuck right off.
That is what I am doing for the past 2 years. Managed to completly remove Apple, all my media content is torrented, free. Just can’t remove Google and Microsoft (at work).
I’m guessing a large percentage of the upvotes are from Americans.
I hope the boycott doesn’t stop even after if ever the regime changes. US will stay the same, what happened today can happen tomorrow.
I think the boycotts will mostly continue even after Trump. Once people make an effort to change brands, they’ll probably not go back, and people will get used to going on vacation in places other than the US. A lot of trade is being re-routed to Europe and Asia, once supply chains shift, we probably won’t be shifting them back any time soon.
I have seen that the costs of having america as a middle man for everything are becoming better known. Massive disruptions at first but then as time goes on I see more direct from China, EU, etc. becoming more common in Canada and prices coming down. The usa does not really make that much so once you stop using them as a hub it will be hard to justify going back to. And with their constant race to the bottom I don’t see why anyone would want say their lettuce or “meat” in a few years.
Yeah, but China is about the same as the US, just it’s further away. Which has both advantages and disadvantages.
To me the democracies of the world (which doesn’t include the US anymore) are my preferred trading partners. I’ll buy from China over the US (this isn’t theoretical, I bought a eufy robot vacuum to replace my aging roomba) but I’d rather buy from Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc. over China.
MS Windows and MS Office is also “made in USA”.
Boycotting things you’ve already purchased like alcohol and software doesn’t do anything
Alcoholics love this one simple trick.
So are iPhones, Amazon, Google, and Facebook.
Canadians only seem willing to boycott farmers not the powerful men that have Trumps ear and put him in power to enact their will.
America has already completed a near 100% digital conquest of Canada with near zero resistance. No wonder they are surprised that there is pushback about “51st state”
Aren’t most farmers voting for team red? It’s easier to change whose produce I buy this weekend than it is to change my phone’s OS.
I have quit reddit, Instagram, Dropbox, and dropped down to a free tier of Google since the boycotts began though. It’s a work in progress to be rid of all commercial us tech though.
Irrelevant, unlike inside the states there is not so much focus on the team blue/red nonsense. This is a trade war, between nations, that the us started. The producers in the states have been terrible anyways (and heavily subsidized). We don’t need or want your shitty food, its one of if not the easiest thing to walk away from.
Oh and please keep in mind that this stupid trade war also has a lot to do with the us trying to force their terrible cheap milk and meat on Canadians. So yeah, why would we pick on those poor farmers…
Maybe you meant to comment on the parent comment? 🤔
I’m 🍁, not kkk.
Still putting forward the same frustrating points as those usa prone are on about. Not on you, we are under constant bullshit after all. We are well past the point of red vs blue, and any Canadian who still thinks that distinction matters is likely drinking too much american koolade.
But yeah, your are right that changing buying habits on food is easy vs phone software. Here is hoping the world plops out a non us solution.
Yeah, fair.
Aren’t most farmers voting for team red?
US here, yes. The Ag industry is heavily Republican and you can tell it by all the handouts they keep getting from them. They’re also a bunch of millionaires who cry the second anything goes sideways then comes out better. The mom & pop farms that people think of are almost nonexistent, especially after the last time the republicans convinced them to do a farmers strike decades ago, which lost a lot of small farms to big corporations.
iPhones are only designed in USA, 0 actual production.
Software (app store), significant portion made in usa.
Also more important: significant portion of the money goes to USA excelutives.
I types this on a google phone, I’m in the same boat.
As an American, I’m right there with you Canada. I’ve been giving your country all my tourism money for the past 2 years since the orange dipshit became president again. You deserve it more than this shitty country does.
It’s been an education.
On the positive side, I never realized how many products are actually manufactured in Canada. There’s a Canadian option for nearly everything I see at the supermarket. Toothpaste is an odd exception. Some items read “Made in Canada using domestic and imported ingredients”. They don’t specify beyond that where they were imported from, which is a bit annoying.
One thing that really pisses me off is canned soup. Apparently, Campbells went around at some point and bought up nearly all the independent canneries, replacing them with a few giant ones in the US. Even Habitant, which I had always thought of as a Canadian brand, is under the Campbells umbrella at this point. But Canada (specifically Quebec) is the primary aluminum producer for North America by a good margin, which means a 50% tariff ding for every can produced. This affects American and Canadian consumers alike. Canned soup is supposed to be affordable, dammit!
Well, it turns out there is one cannery left in my area: Sprague. They’re a bit of a boutique brand, so not necessarily cheaper, but at least they’re not tariff-inflated and they make a good product. Their soups generally don’t contain outrageous amounts of sodium like most of Campbells offerings, and all their cans have pull tops which is a nice touch. I’m giving them a lot of business now and hope they can expand to fill the void of Canadian producers.
Campbells went around at some point and bought up nearly all the independent canneries, replacing them with a few giant ones in the US.
Ever wondered why campbells condensed soup is so fucking pricey now? It is just like you explain except even dumber, they used to have facilities here in Canada (after buying them all up). But then moved (shut them all down and fired everyone) them just before trump got back into office to “save money” and now are considering leaving the Canadian market since almost all their inputs are now super tariffed then tariffed again back into Canada and believe it or not is not making anything off those cans just to keep some competition.
And this is the same that happened with Delissio pizza and McCain’s frozen drinks (both gone from Canada). Also Kraft Heinz can go fuck itself, as it did that to the Canadian market first.
Hate to tell you this, but canned soup is in steel cans with a plastic liner.
Oh ok. Well, steel is also 50% tariffed with a lot of it produced in Canada, so the end result is basically the same.
Nelson’s Naturals does toothpaste. Refillable, even. And they sell toothpaste tablets.
Refillable from what? It’s already in a packaging that is essentially a bag with a cap.
This in is the dictionary under unforced error.
I thought this was already being done almost from the onset of the current U.S. regime?
People aren’t going back and forth on this decision. It’s definitely something that needs to be done and they need to stick to it. Build up your own infrastructure before it’s too late.
AFAIK they been doing it for a better part of two years ever since Trump proposed the annexation of Canada.
The article is new, the behavior isn’t.
For me a major concern was American surveillance and law enforcement backdoors. A country with no concern for international law or human rights should not have that kind of supranational power. I’d feel safer with Chinese electronics in all honesty.
Here’s some alternatives I’ve been using:
-Routers: Mikrotik, Latvian company, mostly made in Eastern Europe
-Cloud Storage: Tresorit, owned by Swiss Post
-VPS: Ovhcloud, French company with its North American Datacenter in Canada
-Linux: Anything but Fedora which is owned by IBM. Using it contributes to their RnD for their Redhat corporate services and distros.
-Dropped every single US owned social media and subscription service.
Still working on migrating my email and search off Microsoft and Google. Going to drop Android and Steam at the first viable opportunity.
A country with no concern for international law or human rights should not have that kind of supranational power. I’d feel safer with Chinese electronics in all honesty.
This describes both the Americans and the Chinese. But I guess you can pick the lesser threat based on your circumstances. The Chinese have been far more aggressive in my region so if I’m forces to choose, well the choice is clear.
As a rule of thumb, you want to give the least of your personal information to the country that will violate your country’s independence. Its a rational choice.
I’d feel safer with Chinese electronics in all honesty.
Don’t let recency bias cloud over your judgement.
Its not, China is preferable atm.
How many millions of people will die because those morons in Washington destroyed USAID and disrupted global food and energy supply chains?
Russia is right there with the US doing the same illegal wars of aggression and murdering civilians.
One week in migrating Android→GrapheneOS and Google→Proton. Almost everything is the same, but I can’t tap to pay on GrapheneOS, no face camera unlock (fingerprint sensor works well), and Proton Drive is a bit slow for photos. Other than that, I’m not noticing any negatives.
European here. Avoiding American stuff wherever possible since a while.
Sneakers, clothing, Linux rather than Windows, tech, ketchup and so forth.
Not sure what the impact will be, if any, but hopefully it will help a bit somehow.
I am hoping to hear from a real Canadian if this a common thing among Canadians or is it just a handful of people?
Very common. I’ve notices the US products are basically permanently on sale, and for the last year it’s commonplace to see non-US products replacing the US products. I take that as a sign US made products just aren’t selling all that well.
The grocery stores kinda to a half-assed labeling effort to indicate which products are Canadian, but it’s really inconsistent. Seems like they don’t want to be doing this, but are responding to pressure from customers.
Try to book a hotel in Canada right now. Everything is booked out because Canadians are taking their holidays within Canada instead of going to the US.
And yeah, I’m not buying US made products anymore. There are some Maple-MAGA types that aren’t, but it seems a lot of people are checking labels, and putting the products with “Made in USA” back on the shelf and getting something else.
It’s a common topic of conversation in the grocery store aisles and in the coffee shops.
Nobody is happy about how Trump’s America is trying to fick over our country.
It’s not just the tariffs and other bullshit.
I can’t trust American products to be safe.
Dude, the American imported oranges have been going moldy on the grocery store shelves since Biden left office.
People will go hungry before they buy fascist.
Canadian from Quebec here - everyone in my family and friends and every co-workers i have is trying to avoid Americans products, vacations, cars, etc as much as possible, every day.
It’s not even a spite thing, not anymore at least - it’s just a new habit we’re collectively developing.
Tod Maffin has been an amazing and hilarious voice for months through all this…
I’ve been happy to see so many “aliment Quebec” lables.
This is starting to become pretty widespread. My local grocery and liquor stores don’t carry any US products, and i don’t miss them at all.
I don’t think the USA would be bitching and moaning about Canadian tourists no longer visiting their shithole or Canadians not buying their alcohol if it were just a handful of people taking part in the boycott.
Crown Royal seems to have recently been doing a big advert push in the US. Bold choice, especially assuming no exception to the tariffs. But ya know, they might be “unenforceable” retroactively and give businesses another huge refund.
I don’t blame anyone for avoiding this place. It blows my mind how comfortable people from the US are leaving for vacation and having to deal with coming back in. It’s been proven it doesn’t matter if you’re a citizen or not.
it’s common enough among everyone I know. probably at least 15% that actively avoid US products and another 15% that passively avoid them.
edit: I do know a good number of people who just shake their head at the US and haven’t made their actual behaviours known. but I also know a few people who have cut out american products as much as possible, including altering their diets and what services they use. it’s not just “oh I’ll buy the Canadian version” — it’s “oh, it’s american, nevermind I’ll just find/do something else”
Thanks a lot everyone for your answers, you give me hope that this orange guy is not going to get away with everything he does
Another Canadian here and I’ll tell ya, buying American ain’t what it used to be. It’s not just a boycott, it’s straight up reputational ruination.
You should believe it because politicians in the affected states are whining about it.
They’re whining to us instead of to the orange shit king. But that’s a different problem.
Canadian in Ontario, only if there is no alternative will I buy American.
and only if I actually need whatever it is
otherwise I’ll just do without
If it something i really cant do without, I at least to try to find it from a blue state
Leaving american products and produce on the shelf is very much a thing.
Abandoning American alcohol and never looking back is a thing.
Actively replacing American products with local, European or Asian trade partners is a thing.
I think that a lot of this will be ongoing, even after the Trump regime falls.
Adding my Canadian voice to the pile: it’s very real and common. It’s common enough that our biggest grocery chain has updated their labelling to be much clearer on the source of products
Québécois who did his groceries earlier today, here - 100% agree. Without going back to check I can tell you I intentionally didn’t buy grapes (“product of the United States”) but i did buy iceberg lettuce (from Quebec, incidentally for 1$) and red bell peppers (product of Canada). I bought onions (from Canada) but no berries (they were all from the US). Bought some “CARBS” sourdough crackers, too, Companys right here in Quebec!!
Lettuce is the tricky one. Yeah, you can get iceberg lettuce in the summer, but in the winter the iceberg lettuce seems to come from the US. Ironically you can’t get Canadian iceberg lettuce in the winter. I’ve had to get other kinds of lettuce (grown in a greenhouse, I presume) in the winter.
Not having berries is surprising to me. I suppose for Quebec, Maine is closer to get them from. But there are definitely berries grown in Canada, I worked on harvesting them when I was a kid. They just need to start sourcing them from NB.
I’m surprised that peaches are grown in Ontario. I guess I always just assumed they came from Georgia.
The grocery stores near me have big signs with Canadian flags on, marking some shelves as all Canadian. They wouldn’t bother if they didn’t think it would help sales.
The big grocery store chains have also been caught profusely maple-washing. Best to avoid Loblaws/Sobeys/etc even if they are big Canadian companies. Try to go to independent markets if possible.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/investigates/sobeys-loblaw-maple-washing-9.7196767
There’s gotta be some people who don’t give a shit but I haven’t really met any. I don’t know anyone who’s taken a trip to the US during this admin and many who’ve cancelled trips. Even my elderly mom is using apps to avoid American products. It’s definitely not just the typical folks you’d expect to be calling for boycotts.
Pretty much everyone I know avoids any American products at the grocery store, and I know a few people that have switched off products they like to Canadian alternatives (like ketchup, cheese, etc). My family bought Heinz our whole lives and now we’ve swapped to French’s, which we’ve found we like better so we won’t be switching back anyways. I think one of the biggest things is losing a lot of long time customers and brand loyalty.
Canadian here. Everyone I know is trying to avoid American products when we can. My parents switched from orange juice to apple juice for breakfast. People buy produce from Mexico to avoid American, enough that supermarkets try harder at sourcing outside the US wherever possible.
