We can make a difference if every single Canadian decides that our purchasing power can trump U.S. President Donald Trump
By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on September 10, 2026.
OTTAWA—Elbows up. This fight is going to be won by all Canadians.
The government has certain tools at its disposal, but Canadian purchasing power is even more powerful. We can make a difference if every single Canadian decides that our purchasing power can trump United States President Donald Trump.
Being serious about making Canadian decisions can actually take some effort. In the past week, I had two purchases to make.
Paint and underwear were on the agenda as I was in the hunt for a couple of gallons of paint to do some home renovation work. I also had a new mastectomy bra to buy.
The paint purchase required a fair bit of research. I was cross-checking colours via new technology that allows one to upload a room picture and use technology to check the new colour virtually.
The best tool I could find for that exercise was a Home Depot paint called Behr. It allowed me to change the colour and check the paint look in the room by computer to assist in decision-making.
But then I researched where Behr paint was made. It is manufactured in California, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Florida. Nothing in Canada. The only thing remotely related to Canada was an input of nephtonite, which is a pigment extender and high-performance functional filler used in paints and mined near Peterborough, Ont.
A quick search will identify a number of domestic manufacturers of paint, and some international companies that produce paint for the Canadian market in Canada.
The No. 1 supplier is BeautiTone, the Canadian retail brand sold by Home Hardware and manufactured in Burford, Ont. Cloverdale in British Columbia and MF in Quebec both manufacture and distribute Canadian paint. Boomerang is an eco-friendly product produced in Shawinigan, Que., by Laurentide.
In order to purchase the paint I had identified through the online technology tool, I had to go to Home Depot, get the available swatch and then take it to Home Hardware where a computerized system copied the colour and created two gallons for purchase.
I may have paid a little more (although I managed to buy it during a Labour Day paint sale), but the most important element in the purchase was the time it took to research the origin of a potential paint purchase.
The bra decision was a little easier. I visited a mastectomy boutique and tried on a fabulous bra that I was ready to purchase. But before doing so, I asked the salesperson where the item was manufactured. Turns out it was made in the U.S.
I asked if there were other alternatives. And there were. The salesperson sourced a Canadian bra which turned out to be just as comfortable and almost $40 cheaper. Mastectomy products are outrageously overpriced.
A replacement synthetic breast is more than $500, although there are some government rebates available.
The salesperson told me the American-made bra was the most popular, but the Canadian alternative was equally comfortable.
The mastectomy purchases were more than $700, and the paint was about $150. That was an $850 investment in Canada, that, under normal circumstances, would have gone to purchase American products.
If every Canadian does that every week, we can take our collective purchasing power and make a difference in this trade war.
Meanwhile, provincial governments need to get serious about eliminating interprovincial barriers. At last count, those barriers amounted to the equivalent of a nine per cent tariff.
Provinces have promised to eliminate those tariffs, but the work is moving at a snail’s pace. When it comes to recognition of interprovincial credentials, we need a major push on labour mobility to ensure that a tradesperson in Atlantic Canada can work anywhere in the country.
We also need initiatives to encourage all-Canadian professional and not-for-profit organizations. Why do we need an Oxfam Quebec and an Oxfam Canada?
Free trade and professional recognition between and among provinces is just as important as building international trade links.
The federal government should be working to encourage those interprovincial links. To date, political effort has been directed at solving federal-provincial problems. We need a specific provincial to provincial strategy to force recalcitrant provinces to apply as much pressure on themselves as we are putting on the United States.
Even the separatists understand the existential American threat. Ironically, the Parti Québécois promises to delay a vote on breaking up the country until Donald Trump is gone. They realize that annexation is a greater threat to their language and culture than any grievance they attribute to Canada.
Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.