How To Make The Most out of Your $ as a Canadian Consumer in the Canada/U.S. Trade War

Here's how you can help support the Team Canada fight - while also get the most out of your wallet.

While the incoming Canada/U.S. trade war threatens to radically shift our consumer habits and eating patterns, here’s a look at how to save money and buy Canadian.

PSA — Buy Local

Before launching into categories, I’d would like to emphasize that it’s always in our best interest to buy local. It helps your community, real local businesses, and often it’s the best quality.

For example, rather than buying stale beans from Costco, I order fresh beans from Structure Roasters, a locally-owned roaster in Montreal that delivers free anywhere in Ontario or Montreal!

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Now, let’s get into spending categories, and the Canadian options available for each.

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1. Drinks

Photo by Julia Nastogadka on Unsplash

Alcohol

The Canadian alcohol industry is enormous, with a well-established network of wineries, breweries, and distilleries across the country. In fact, liquor vendors and retail outlets sold $26.3 billion alcoholic beverages in 2023 alone.

Here are some Canadian-made options that won’t be hit with tariffs in 2025.

• SPIRITS — Avoid Jack Daniels

  Look for Pike Creek 10, Canadian Club, Crown Royal

• LAGERS — Avoid Budweiser & Bud Light

  Look for Molson Canadian, Labatt Blue, Keith’s, Sleeman’s

• WINES

  Look for Canadian-made wines, like Peller, Thirty Bench, Trius, etc.

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Photo by Fahmi Fakhrudin on Unsplash

Coffee and Tea

• CAFÉS — Avoid Starbucks

  Look for a local café in your neighbourhood!

• COFFEE BEANS — Avoid Folgers

  Look for Kicking Horse Coffee, Structure Roasters, Opulence, etc..

• TEA — Avoid Lipton

  Look for Red Rose or Tetley¹

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Soft Drinks and Beverages

• POP — Avoid Coca-Cola or Pepsi

  Look for Canada Dry

• ORANGE JUICE — Avoid Tropicana

  Look for Oasis, SunRype or Arthur’s

• ENERGY DRINKS — Avoid Gatorade, Powerade & Redbull

  Look for BioSteel, Beaver Buzz, and Zoo energy

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Photo by Mustafa Bashari on Unsplash

2. Snacks & Packaged Foods

Canada’s snack food market is estimated at $13.4 billion, led by cookies/crackers, then potato chips.

Here are some Canadian-made options to satisfy your cravings:

Chips

• Avoid Lay’s

  Look for Miss Vicky’s or Old Dutch

Cereal

• Avoid Kellogg’s

  Look for Nature’s Path, Quaker, Barbara’s

Cookies/Crackers

• Avoid Nabisco

  Look for Dare, Leclerc, Voortman

Sauces/Ketchups

• Avoid Heinz

  Look for French’s

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Photo by Jakob Cotton on Unsplash

3. Dairy

The dairy industry is a particularly important (and potentially vulnerable-to-tariffs) industry for Canada. While dairy consumption has decline in recent years, it is still significant, with Canadians consuming an average of 58 litres of milk per person in 2022.

Here are some Canadian-made dairy options:

Cheese

• Avoid Kraft

  Look for Black Diamond, Saputo, Armstrong

Yoghurt

• Avoid Yoplait

  Look for Astro, Liberté or Olympic

Butter

• Avoid Land O’ Lakes

  Look for Lactantia, Gay Lea, or Natrel

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Photo by Monika Grabkowska on Unsplash

4. Baking Products

Canadians are enormous consumers of baked goods. On average, Canadians consume 1.4 billion kilograms of bread each year, which is forecast to grow 21.4% by 2028.

Here are some Canadian-made options that won’t be hit by tariffs in 2025:

Flour, Baking Mixes

• Avoid Pillsbury & Betty Crocker

  Look for Robin Hood, Five Roses, Compliments

Chocolate Chips

• Avoid Hershey’s

  Look for Camino, Laura Secord

Sugar

• Avoid Domino

  Look for Redpath

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Photo by The Nix Company on Unsplash

5. Personal Care Products

Canadians consume an incredible amount of consumer products. Roughly $115.5 billion consumer goods were imported into Canada in 2023, representing 15% of all imported goods.

As tariffs begin to hit prices of imported American-made personal care products, here are some useful tariff-free Canadian alternatives:

Toothpaste

• Avoid Colgate

  Look for Green Beaver or Tom’s of Maine²

Soap and Shampoo

• Soap — Avoid Dove

  Look for Live Clean or the Green Beaver Company³

• Shampoo — Avoid Head & Shoulders

  Look for Attitude⁴ or The Unscented Company

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Razors, Shaving Cream

• Shaving Cream — Avoid Gillette

  Look for Schick or Personna

• Razors — Avoid Dollar Shave Club

  Look for Henson Shaving or Great Canadian Shave Club

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Next Steps

Again, keep in mind that these changes will be inconvenient. We may be forced to make adjustments to our spending habits, what we eat, and more.

But despite these challenges, this trade war also presents an interesting time for you to change up eating habits and learn how to be creative in your spending habits (eg ordering from local roaster, etc).

So what do you think about the impact of incoming tariffs?

1. Note only some Tetley are Canadian-made

2. Note only some Tom’s of Maine are Canadian-made

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