Canada Strong

It's now become a habit, and habits are hard to break.

Ever since the Tangerine Turd started spewing nonsense about making Canada a 51st state and imposed ridiculous tariffs, DW and I made a conscious decision, like so many Canadians, to stop buying American products. If a Canadian alternative isn't available, we'll buy from any other country.

For the first few weeks, it took us a bit longer at the grocery store because we had to check the packaging on every product to ensure we knew where it was made. And still, in the produce section of our favourite store, we double-check to make sure we're not buying American produce.

We often go for long stretches without buying some produce if the US is the only option.

But for other products where we made the change in the early days, we now automatically pick up those things, rather than what we used to buy before our neighbours to the south pissed us off. These new products, equally good or even better, are now what we favour.

We buy them out of habit.

It's good to see that many flyers from local grocery stores and highlighting products that are from Canada. Many of the advertised items have a maple leaf next to them, and some stores highlight goods that are home-grown.

I like that.

I don't think Americans realize that their government has shot itself in the foot. I have American friends who support our boycott of American products, but they seem to think that we will only be doing this while the tariff war continues or while the current administration is in power.

Sadly, they're wrong.

Personally, I have become used to the products that I have switched to. I am more aware of Canadian brands, and I am all for supporting those companies.

I won't be switching back.

And I don't think I'm alone. I believe that many Canadians have switched their shopping habits and have become loyal to these brands.

Our government is working hard to establish new trading partners, and I support this effort. We'll be introduced to new items and we'll become used to giving our dollars to these companies. We'll realize that we don't need to depend on the US for goods.

We'll develop new spending habits. And as we all know, habits are hard to break.

The Tangerine Turd says that the US doesn't need Canada. That's fine.

We don't need the US, either.