‘Buy Canadian’ movement just as strong 19 months since trade war began: poll

Posted October 2, 2026 11:06 am

2 min read

1:52 How ‘Buy Canadian’ is changing grocery aisles

Canadians are just as enthusiastic about avoiding American products and buying Canadian as they were nineteen months ago when U.S. President Donald Trump launched his trade war against Canada, new polling shows.

The share of Canadians who intend to avoid American products is “unchanged,” a report from Abacus Data said on Thursday.

In February 2025, Trump first announced tariffs against Canada. Abacus conducted a poll of Canadians asking them if they intend to boycott American products, with 78 per cent saying they would.

Nineteen months later, the figure is virtually unchanged at 77 per cent.

Many are putting their intentions into action. In February, more than half (53 per cent) said they had bought more Canadian goods, while on Thursday that figure was 61 per cent.

2:10 Buy Canadian app sees spike in popularity

The largest swing came among Canadians who said they would not make any travel plans to the U.S., with the number rising from 32 per cent in February 2025 to 52 per cent in 2026.

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Canadians are also making smaller behaviour changes, such as avoiding American gas stations (rising from 33 per cent to 39 per cent), avoiding American retailers such as Walmart (20 per cent to 26 per cent), reducing purchases on Amazon (21 per cent to 26 per cent) and cancelling American streaming services (14 per cent to 20 per cent).

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The demographic where the Buy Canadian movement was softening was older Canadians, with 54 per cent saying they planned to avoid American products in February 2025 and 48 per cent in September 2026.

Over the same period, Canadians under 30 went from 31 per cent to 32 per cent during the same period.

But challenges remain, with 61 per cent of Canadians saying buying Canadian-made goods would cost more money, up from 60 per cent in February 2025.

In February 2025, the week the first U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods took effect, Abacus Data surveyed 3,000 Canadian adults (February 5 to 11, 2025) about how the tariffs would change what they buy. In September 2026 Abacus asked the same questions again of 1,479 Canadian adults from September 4 to 9, 2026.