After Trump’s Sovereignty Threats, Canadians ‘Elbow Up’

For Lisa McBean, buying American-made snacks and traveling to the US was second nature. That changed for Ontario residents in early 2025.

Since then, the 54-year-old has checked to see if products are made in Canada before buying them at the grocery store. McBean canceled several trips to the US that he had planned for concerts. The once-common jaunts across the border to shop are out of the picture.

The reason: US President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for Canada to become the 51st US state. His tariffs on the country’s exports added salt to the wound, he said.

“Enough is enough,” McBean told CNBC. “Why should we make you great again at our expense?”

A large-scale boycott

McBean’s rejection is part of a broader boycott by Canadians for Trump’s levies and sovereignty rights. An extraordinary tide of Canadian patriotism that began a year ago has evolved into a new social and economic order for a country of 41 million.

The shift has affected everything from what brands Canadians buy to where they vacation to how they vote. There are economic impacts on both sides of the border that policymakers are taking into account. Polling suggests that changed behavior won’t change anytime soon.

“Canadians remain steadfast,” said Steve Mossop, executive vice-president of Leger, a Montreal-based polling service. “The biggest surprise is how adamant Canadians are about not supporting the USA in any shape or form.”

The data shows that Canadians continue to spend with their “elbows up” — a hockey term used as a slogan for resistance to American pressure.

Thin ice

The Census Bureau reports that Canada will be the second largest US trading partner in 2025. But economists warn that the old relationship is skating on thin ice. Barring the pandemic, the percentage of Canadian imports coming from the US hit a record low last year.

“We’ve always seen the US as a very strong and reliable ally,” said Michael Devereux, an economics professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. “It’s really weakened over the last year.”

Canadians will begin shifting their food purchases from the US as early as 2025, a data analysis released last month by the Bank of Canada found. Domestic brands gained wallet share as retailers and liquor stores encouraged shoppers to buy Canadian.

Central bank researchers called this a structural change in the national economy, directly resulting from increased trade tensions. The transformation could affect Canadian inflation and the makeup of its gross domestic product, he said.

Already, the Bank of Canada began asking consumers last year about US goods purchases and US travel spending in its flagship consumer survey.

According to a January survey of more than 2,600 consumers by Leger, Canada’s largest market research and analytics firm, more than three in five Canadians said they avoided buying U.S.-made alcohol or products. More than half said they tried not to buy from US-based retailers or websites.

Most Canadians said they would continue to avoid American goods and services over the next six months, Leger found.

Name change

At Great American Backrub locations in Toronto, President Nazir Lalani put up signs emphasizing the chain’s Canadian ownership. After using the name for a quarter of a century, Lalani is considering dropping the US connection.

At the turn of the century, “Any American was very popular in Canada. There was a lot of energy behind it,” Lalani said. “Now, it’s very different.”

Canada’s anger stems from Trump’s assertion that he can push the country to become part of the United States through “economic force.” Trump repeatedly referred to Canada’s prime minister as “the governor” and imposed tariffs on its exports.

“The administration will continue to protect America’s interests by reining in America’s economic power,” a White House official told CNBC in a written statement. About one-fifth of Canada’s economy depends on exports to the US and most of the population lives within 100 miles of the border, the official noted.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s election victory last year was widely seen as a referendum on Trump’s bluster on Canadian sovereignty. Carney, a former governor of the Bank of England, delivered a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January that was widely interpreted as a condemnation of US policy. That same month, Canada and China reached a preliminary trade agreement.

Most recently, Carney wrapped up a global tour this week, where he met with international leaders and strengthened business alliances. Notably, he left out the US

‘Bye America’

Residents of the Great White North do not aim to “buy Canada.” He is also saying “Bye America”.

Canadian return trips by air from the US fell nearly 18% in the year to January, the Canadian government found. Airlines plan to fly 11% fewer seats from Canada to popular snowbird destinations in Arizona and Florida this year, according to flight data from aviation data provider Cerium.

Car crossings by Canadians from the US fell nearly 27% year-over-year in January. Canadians are spending more on domestic travel, said Nathan Janzen, assistant chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada.

In Las Vegas, Caesars And MGM Executives acknowledged fewer visits from Canada in calls with analysts last year. Lower tourist traffic hurt sales at some retailers in Maine and North Dakota, the US Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book.

Canadian bookings at US mountain destinations in January 2026 fell more than 45% from the same month a year ago, as tracked by Inntopia Business Intelligence.

At Jay Peak in northern Vermont, there is a notable absence of the Canadian school trips that once helped fill the 3,800-foot mountain and associated water park, said general manager Steve Wright. Canadian hockey teams skipped tournaments held at the resort’s indoor arena.

Canadians made up roughly 5% of the attendance at Folk Alliance International’s business conference in New Orleans in January, down from 17% in other years. Several Canadian companies have decided not to sponsor the folk music-focused convention this year.

“We completely understand why they are choosing not to come to the U.S.,” said Jennifer Roe, executive director of the Kansas City-based nonprofit.

Until recently, Canadians were the largest foreign buyers of US real estate, according to the National Association of Realtors. But about 18% fewer Canadian users viewed US real estate listings in February than a year earlier, according to Redfin.

‘Time Out’

Ontario-based office manager Deborah Marling sold her second home in Sarasota, Florida last year. Since then, she’s increased her domestic travel and vacations in Costa Rica more often than heading to the American sunbelt. While Marling usually visits her brother in Atlanta each spring, she expects him to move north this year.

“People have always thought of the relationship with the United States as a cousin thing or friendship,” Marling said. “It feels like we’re in ‘time out’ right now.”

Canadians are closely watching the outcome of this year’s ongoing Canada, United States, Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) free-trade agreement and monitoring November’s US midterm elections to see if a change in congressional leadership could limit Trump’s power.

Canadians told CNBC their outrage was aimed at the US federal government, not average Americans. Still, their anger is palpable: the percentage of Canadians with an “unfavorable” view of the US in 2025 hit its highest level since the Pew Research Center began asking the question in 2002.

Yet Canadians have reason to hope for a return to warmer economic relations. Canadian companies seek even deeper US financial markets and try to tap into its enormous consumer market. Canada has the ninth largest economy in the world; America is at No.1 position.

“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 going back to the way it was.

“The damage has already been done,” McBean said. “It’s no longer boycott, it’s change, it’s divorce.”

— CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.