Fifty per cent tariffs on billions of dollars of Canadian goods went into effect over the weekend after Canada-United States trade talks collapsed on Friday. The list of targeted goods features a diverse range of items, from natural honey to hockey sticks, jewellery, cut flowers, wine and a variety of other goods, many produced by smaller businesses . Canadians expressed outrage at reports of U.S. economic bullying in the talks, with 76 per cent of respondents to an Angus Reid Institute poll Sunday saying the government was right to walk away. For the businesses affected , the tariffs are expected to bring real economic pain. “It’s going to be devastating … if this continues,” Toronto retail analyst Bruce Winder said Monday. Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said the new tariffs hit “smack in the centre of small-business trade,” adding that 20 per cent of CFIB members export to the U.S. and at least 40 per cent of those businesses are in the line of fire from the new tariffs. Winder said channelling consumer outrage into Buy Canadian sentiment could soften the blow. “We’re pretty angry right now,” he said. Kelly also urged Canadian consumers to buy local as much as possible — by purchasing Canadian-made items from a Canadian retailer, or as a second option, foreign-made goods (outside of the U.S.) sold by a Canadian retailer. Here’s a look at some Canadian producers and retailers affected by the new tariffs and the Buy Canadian opportunities they present for consumers. Honey Summer’s Gold Honey Co. , which sells honey and beeswax products out of Merlin, Ont., was still reeling from the effect of Trump’s 2025 “Liberation Day” tariffs when the new 50 per cent tariffs hit this weekend. Owner Mike Davidson said he was “livid” when he heard. Last year’s tariffs and the elimination of the de minimis exemption effectively ended his U.S. sales, putting a $50,000 dent in revenues that typically ranged from $300,000 to $500,000. Now he expects the new levies could eliminate the approximately 12 million pounds of honey that get exported from Canada into the U.S. annually, creating the potential for an over-saturated market here. He worries that larger Western Canadian producers will try to sell their product in Ontario, the biggest domestic market for honey, which would put downward pressure on prices and impact smaller businesses such as his. Davidson is working to get Summer’s Gold honey into more major grocery stores, and its products can also be found at some local retailers, as well as the company’s online store. He encouraged people to buy Canadian: “We’re being attacked, and fighting back is the only option.” Wine Painted Rock Estate Winery in Penticton, B.C., was started by Lauren Skinner Buksevics’s parents in 2004 and currently produces around 6,500 cases a year. The business sells predominantly within Canada, with only one to two per cent exported to the U.S., but Buksevics, managing director of the winery, said the southern market is incredibly important to brand building in the world of wine. “In the U.S. you have major reviewers and major publications, and you have to have representation in the U.S. to be published or talked about,” she said. “We work with a distributor in California, and the goal from the very beginning with entering the U.S. market was to support our brand and … Canadian wine.” With such punitive tariffs, Buksevics said the California distributor will no longer be able to purchase from the B.C. winery, which means her business will lose out on any potential U.S. publicity. So instead, Painted Rock will focus more on expanding its profile in London, another major wine hub. “This really is an opportunity for us to look more broadly at the entire world market and figure out where Canada has a place.” Buksevics has seen growing support from Canadian consumers, who have purchased a bottle for the first time in support of a domestic winery, only to become a repeat buyer. She hopes the Canadian government and provinces do more to eliminate red tape and interprovincial trade barriers on alcohol, after several provinces signed a deal to facilitate direct-to-consumer sales in July. Currently, Painted Rock wines are mainly available in B.C. liquor stores and private retailers, and in Ontario through select restaurants, though Canadians in some other provinces can also purchase them directly online through the business’s website. Jewellery Cindy Lou Baldassi has been running a handmade jewellery business out of Calgary for nearly 18 years. The CindyLouWho2 website and Etsy shop feature a variety of unusual pieces, from labradorite pendant necklaces to fossil and dinosaur bone jewellery — including her popular dinosaur poop charms — and manage about 1,000 orders each year. Her online shop will be taking a sizable hit from the 50 per cent tariffs, which cover sterling silver and imitation jewellery, after her stainless-steel keychains were already affected by steel tariffs. While Baldassi expects some jewellery exporters could potentially find loopholes around the new levies (depending on what they sell), businesses that operate solely online depend disproportionately on the U.S. customer, she said. As of now, about 75 per cent of her sales are from American buyers, though she said this has come down from 90 per cent last year since the trade war forced her to diversify into other countries. Baldassi has already expanded her business into Australia, New Zealand and a few countries in Asia. She said she is seeing an outpouring of support from Canadian customers online who told her they have been promoting her in group chats and forums and checking out sites that have compiled lists of Canadian businesses to buy from. “People are renewing their interest in buying Canadian,” she said. Docks CanadaDocks Inc. manufactures uniquely designed aluminum docks for cottages that don’t require welded joints, making them lighter and more economical for transportation across the country and into the U.S. However, 50 per cent tariffs are an unwieldy burden for the Beaton, Ont., business, which now expects demand from U.S. customers to grind to a halt. Prior to last year’s tariffs, about 15 per cent of CanadaDocks’ sales went to the U.S., said Alex DeFrancesco, the company’s brand manager, who recounted a Costo Canada launch a few years ago that the dock maker hoped would lead to an expansion into Costco’s American warehouses. “We were actively growing that territory, and as everybody knows … if you want to grow a business, that’s where you have to go.” But DeFrancesco said there have been some positive outcomes to the trade war, as Canadians have increasingly turned to domestic dock makers instead of American competitors. “As much as we may have lost business, we also gained other (customers),” he said, adding that sales dropped only slightly last year. CanadaDocks no longer sells products at Costo’s Canadian stores and currently retails through Canadian Tire, Home Depot and RONA stores. The company’s website also features a tab for buyers to find local dealers across the country that sell its docks. Flowers Cosmic Plants Inc. is one of the four largest orchid growers in Canada. On average, the Lincoln, Ont., company grows about a million plants a year and about one in three of those are exported to the United States. But owner Connor van Steekelenburg said the new tariffs have compelled the company to sell its flowers at discounted rates in the past three weeks, to move as much inventory as possible. “We wanted to be proactive,” he said. “So, we have been trying to keep things moving, because these flowers are perishable.” For flower growers, finding an alternative foreign market to the U.S. is not feasible at this point, according to Andrew Morse, executive director of the association Flowers Canada Growers. “The products are really tuned for the U.S. market,” he said. “They are made specifically to travel by truck across North America. They are not ideal for shipping to other foreign destinations. So, trade diversification is not really a solution.” For now, Steekelenburg is ensuring he does not lose his clients in the U.S. and is prepared to absorb some of the tariff costs. However, in the long run, he doesn’t think that will be viable. He hopes to be able to sell more in Canada. “We have seen the power of Canadian support in the past and it really does have the ability to influence positive change,” he said. “If Canadians continue to shop with intention, that would probably be the thing that helps the most.” Cosmic Plants orchids are sold in many flower shops, garden centres, grocery stores and big box and hardware chains. Steekelenburg suggested flower consumers look for “Grown in Canada” labels. Hockey equipment While much of the hockey equipment sold in Canada is made in China, certain specialized products will be affected by the latest tariffs, said Joey Walsh, founder and chief executive of HockeyStickMan Inc. , a Belleville, Ont.-based retailer that sells hockey equipment from brands including CCM, Bauer and its in-house line, Pro Blackout. Walsh estimates the new tariffs will affect around five to 10 per cent of his company’s sales, covering made-in-Canada items such as wooden sticks, refurbished sticks and pro stock equipment manufactured for professional, minor league and collegiate players, particularly goalie gear. About half of HockeyStickMan’s sales are to customers in the U.S., and Walsh said he anticipates it will be the “perception” of tariffs that hurts sales, more than the tariff itself. “We do several hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales in the United States every week, so the court of public opinion is absolutely going to hurt us,” he said. “Many of our customers are going to hear that hockey sticks have tariffs and they’re not going to question the country of origin.” Walsh said his company won’t raise prices yet, and plans to absorb the new tariffs over the coming weeks. Tariffs will hurt, but escalation of trade war risks a recession, economists warnTrump threatens to double Canadian auto tariffs in latest escalation of trade war HockeyStickMan employs 80 people, all based in Canada, with stores in Belleville and Toronto. Walsh said supporting Canadian retailers is a good idea for consumers who want to buy local, even if their products are manufactured elsewhere. “But at the same time, I encourage people to look after themselves and to get the best deal that they can for their families, because hockey is not a cheap sport,” he said. Email: nkarim@postmedia.com – slouis@postmedia.com – jswitzer@postmedia.com
A ‘Buy Canadian’ consumer’s guide to fighting Trump’s 50% tariffs
