As Canadians brace for the U.S. tariffs slated to take effect on March 4, some Oak Bay shoppers and businesses are making an effort to buy local.
“I think I can speak for many of my friends: we’re all reading labels now,” said Victoria resident Erica, who opted not to share her last name. “I’m making more of an effort to find out exactly where something came from.”
Marilyn Hemingway, who lives in Oak Bay, expressed a similar sentiment.
"I like to shop local. Food-wise, very, very much so," she said. “If it says Mexico, I’ll buy it, but not from the United States.”
19-year-old University of Victoria student Kaya Crumley noted she wants to make more of an effort to buy Canada products.
“I definitely believe you have to shop locally,” she said. “Lately, I’ve been maybe not considering that as much as I should and I feel like that is a good thing to bring awareness to.”
Some local entrepreneurs are also changing what they buy, and Martin Cownden, the owner of Oak Bay-based meal service company Chef on the Run, is one of the local business people doing just that.
"I can't think of anything right now that we would be buying that we haven't double-checked to see that ... we can't have a Canadian option," he said.
When asked why he is looking homeward now more than ever for his business inputs, Cownden began singing O Canada.
"It's the legislation and the policies that the U.S. government appears to be adopting and pursuing that we take issue with, and so our reaction to disparaging policies are that we will seek and endeavour to buy, as much as we can, Canadian," he said.
Cownden is also the president of the Oak Bay Business Improvement Association – a local group that represents and promotes some 150 member businesses.
"I'm hearing that people are very mindful of buying Canadian and dealing Canadian and being loyal to who we are," he said about the group's membership. "I've only heard people [say they] need to find new ways of supporting local."
These attitudes are part of a larger trend, according to a recent Interac survey, which found that 79 per cent of the 1,500 Canadians polled agree supporting local businesses feels more important than it did last year. 55 per cent of these folks ranked patriotism and Canadian pride as one of the top motivations for choosing Canadian-made products.
"Amid the current climate of economic uncertainty and evolving tariff threats, Canadians are looking at their spending in a new light," Debbie Gamble, Interac’s chief strategy and marketing officer, said in a release. "Our survey results confirm that Canadians are very intentionally exercising their spending power.”
Another survey, this one from the Angus Reid Group, found 78 per cent of the 3,310 Canadians polled are committing to buying more Canadian goods in response to the proposed U.S. tariffs, while 59 per cent are likely to boycott American products.
For some Oak Bay shoppers, this change in consumer behaviour also comes with frustrations over current Canada-U.S. relations.
“The United States has usually been a friend and neighbour and now it just feels like we’re getting a kick in the teeth,” said one Oak Bay resident, who chose not to share her name.
Local resident Hugh Finlayson thinks changes in Canada's relationship with its southern neighbour are unfortunate, but he isn’t surprised by President Donald Trump's tariff threats.
“That’s what happens in elections,” he said. “The U.S. voted for this character and he has a set of policies that he didn’t make a secret and here they are.”
