Avoiding US goods and services – from tech to whisky to air travel – has forced many to find a new way of living
This week the US imposed 50% tariffs on US$20bn (£15bn) of Canadian goods, and Mark Carney, the country’s prime minister, has vowed to match them “dollar for dollar” after the collapse of trade talks between the two countries last weekend. Donald Trump retaliated on Thursday by ordering the federal government to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America.
Such actions have added fuel to a widespread boycott of US products and services by Canadians that began early last year in response to the president’s trade war and threats to annex his northern neighbour.
More than 3,500 people from across Canada shared with the Guardian via an online callout how they have made changes to their lives in response to the US administration’s political and economic stance. Many expressed deep anger and sadness, but remained resolute that this was now a new way of living.
European here. Avoiding American stuff wherever possible since a while.
Sneakers, clothing, Linux rather than Windows, tech, ketchup and so forth.
Not sure what the impact will be, if any, but hopefully it will help a bit somehow.
“I think you need to be in Canada to understand how deep the animosity to the US is”
I too have deep animosity for the US, and I live here
If there is one thing US citizens and non-US citizens can agree upon, it’s that the US can fuck right off.
You need to be in Canada to understand how deep the animosity to the US is.
deleted by creator
You are free to leave.
I would, but I can’t just cross the border and declare myself a citizen of another country
So, no, I’m not. I’m kind of stuck here
Trust me, if England or Canada or Australia or Scotland, or Ireland, hell, maybe even Switzerland or France or Germany, etc… said I was free to live there for the rest of my life, I’d start packing my shit tonight
I taught English in Asia for 10 years. For most countries, you just need to have an employable skill they need (Canada in particular likes tech workers, China, Vietnam and South Korea love oral English teachers, as do many Middle East countries like the UAE or even Turkey). Or, if you have a decent enough pension check, they’ll let you move right in and grant you residency. So no, you’re not “stuck” here. Your brain might be “stuck”, but you certainly aren’t. As well, you can set up a joint-venture business with a citizen of a different nation, and your business visa can be converted to a residence visa if the venture proves successful.
And a big thanks to the downvoters – always finding reasons to hate!
My age is a bit of a factor
I also have a family so it’s not just me
I’ve looked. Nothing too crazy but I’ve explored the idea of getting my child out of a part of the world where people think teachers should have guns
I met plenty of people who were older, married, with kids who taught English overseas. No different than teaching here (except for the food, which in many cases was better than here!). Seriously.
But you are clearly writing over-generalization checks that life refuses to cash. SOME Americans think teachers should have guns, and they have their reasons. MOST Americans don’t want guns in the classrooms for obvious reasons. Everyone has a right to their beliefs and opinions. Nobody deserves to be generalized or compartmentalized into a group. You just did both.
Personally, I think you’re converting your own lack of follow-through for your own family’s future into misplaced contempt for a nation that (unlike most) will actually allow you to leave. You said earlier that you can’t just “show up and be a citizen” in other countries (because they have rules), and tried to blame America for it. Then, when I showed you that you could, you said “it’s not for me” and then expressed even more contempt for the country I just gave you a way out of.
Grow up. Quit bitching.
I’m trying to go to England, not Singapore. Pretty sure they don’t need Americans to teach the English how to speak English
deleted by creator
I never said anything about Singapore so please quit lying and putting words in my mouth I never said (although I did date an incredible girl from there, I just liked Malaysia better). And as Singapore was an English colony (prior to the American colonies), they already speak English better than you and I ever will.
Are you really trying to blame America because England spoke English before America even existed? Just wow…
Stop being mean. I get it. I get like that too, but it’s bad and we should both stop and let our words speak for themselves.
I upvoted everything and everyone in this thread for the record. Keep fighting, it’s a good fight and makes me think.
Forget Switzerland. You can’t afford it. Also they are very weird. You know, isolation does things to people.
For anyone interested about companies that have made massive strides since the tariffs:
alt for google : proton (switzerland)
alt browser: vivaldi (norway/germany)
alt search engine : qwant (france) ecosia (germany)
alt for note taking : joplin(england)
alt for win : lunix. (global) -free
alt for mfp: kazio (new zealand)
alt for fitbit : polar (finland)
alt for phones : fairphone (netherlands /china)
alt for github : codeberg (germany)
alt for amazon : shop app (shopify canada)
alt for music : deezer (france)
for books : kobo (canada)
alt for ms office : libreoffice (germany) free
alt card wallet : catima
alt for cloud: nord(lithuania)
alt for streaming : make a jellyfin server - free (throw it on ubuntu (england) start hosting your own stuff local). i suppose also plex but that is a californian company.
alt to paypal : klarna (europe) - that said we still do need more ecommerce to be supportive of alternatives for this and card wallets other than google pay. this is really lagging behind.
Ups for Deezer! I’ve been using for over 3 years. Good stuff!
As an American, I’m right there with you Canada. I’ve been giving your country all my tourism money for the past 2 years since the orange dipshit became president again. You deserve it more than this shitty country does.
For me a major concern was American surveillance and law enforcement backdoors. A country with no concern for international law or human rights should not have that kind of supranational power. I’d feel safer with Chinese electronics in all honesty.
Here’s some alternatives I’ve been using:
-Routers: Mikrotik, Latvian company, mostly made in Eastern Europe
-Cloud Storage: Tresorit, owned by Swiss Post
-VPS: Ovhcloud, French company with its North American Datacenter in Canada
-Linux: Anything but Fedora which is owned by IBM. Using it contributes to their RnD for their Redhat corporate services and distros.
-DNS: Quad9. Switzerland based non profit. Don’t give Cloudflare your precious traffic data.
-Dropped every single US owned social media and subscription service.
Still working on migrating my email and search off Microsoft and Google. Going to drop Android and Steam at the first viable opportunity.
Credit Cards and Youtube are literally the only two that are unviable to switch from… for now.
A country with no concern for international law or human rights should not have that kind of supranational power. I’d feel safer with Chinese electronics in all honesty.
This describes both the Americans and the Chinese. But I guess you can pick the lesser threat based on your circumstances. The Chinese have been far more aggressive in my region so if I’m forces to choose, well the choice is clear.
As a rule of thumb, you want to give the least of your personal information to the country that will violate your country’s independence. Its a rational choice.
I am hoping to hear from a real Canadian if this a common thing among Canadians or is it just a handful of people?
Pretty much everyone I know avoids any American products at the grocery store, and I know a few people that have switched off products they like to Canadian alternatives (like ketchup, cheese, etc). My family bought Heinz our whole lives and now we’ve swapped to French’s, which we’ve found we like better so we won’t be switching back anyways. I think one of the biggest things is losing a lot of long time customers and brand loyalty.
Only reason I didn’t start boycotting Heinz ketchup was because I already was after they closed that Canadian plant some years ago. And you’re right, French’s isn’t even a step down and I’m disappointed at businesses/events that have Heinz condiments.
Hell, I’ve been getting a budget brand ketchup since I can’t find French’s with the older style nozzle (and hate the newer ones that need enough force that it’s too easy to squirt way too much) and even that isn’t bad.
And I think that’s going to be a huge lasting impact. All the marketing time and dollars spent building underserved reputations for mediocre brands is going down the drain as Canadians realize they lose nothing by ignoring US brands. And sometimes the lesser known ones are better because the big brands were enshitified and bet it all on name recognition.
Thanks a lot everyone for your answers, you give me hope that this orange guy is not going to get away with everything he does
You should believe it because politicians in the affected states are whining about it.
They’re whining to us instead of to the orange shit king. But that’s a different problem.
Dude, the American imported oranges have been going moldy on the grocery store shelves since Biden left office.
People will go hungry before they buy fascist.
This is starting to become pretty widespread. My local grocery and liquor stores don’t carry any US products, and i don’t miss them at all.
It’s not just the tariffs and other bullshit.
I can’t trust American products to be safe.
I hope the boycott doesn’t stop even after if ever the regime changes. US will stay the same, what happened today can happen tomorrow.
MS Windows and MS Office is also “made in USA”.
Boycotting things you’ve already purchased like alcohol and software doesn’t do anything
Alcoholics love this one simple trick.
I’m guessing a large percentage of the upvotes are from Americans.
That is what I am doing for the past 2 years. Managed to completly remove Apple, all my media content is torrented, free. Just can’t remove Google and Microsoft (at work).
If it’s american I dick it lick it ship it.
Nobody really cares about 10,000 people boycotting anything… 😆
