From Musk to mushrooms, Canadian buyers let money do the talking amid tariff turmoil

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks alongside then-Republican presidential nominee former president Donald Trump at a campaign event at the Butler Farm Show, in Butler, Pa., Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Alex Brandon

VANCOUVER — Finance worker Michael Atkinson is a fan of electric cars, but lately he found himself embarrassed to drive his Tesla Model 3 around Vancouver.

Dismayed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his association with U.S. President Donald Trump, Atkinson now drives an electric Volkswagen ID.4 after returning his Tesla to the dealership with two months left on the lease.

The final straw was Trump’s planned tariffs on Canadian products, which struck Atkinson as a “horrible economic idea.”

“It’s gonna hurt Americans, it’s certainly going to hurt Canadians and he is using it as essentially blackmail to try to make us consider being a 51st state,” said Atkinson about the threatened tariffs.

He was speaking just before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Trump said on Monday that the tariffs were on hold for a month.

Atkinson, who works for a credit union, is part of a wave of Canadians turning their backs on an array of American products, big and small, to express displeasure at politics and policies south of the border — most notably Trump’s tariff plan.

Andrea Mitchell said outside a supermarket in downtown Vancouver that she “did pretty good” by purchasing mushrooms grown in Canada.

“I think it’s important to show sovereignty and that we stick together. I think it’s an opportunity for us to think about our country and the value of our future,” said Mitchell, adding that Canadians are “really patriotic people.”

Mitchell said the news coming out of the U.S. made her feel that Americans don’t realize “how valuable we are as an ally,” pointing out that Canada had recently sent water bombers and firefighters to California to help battle devastating wildfires.

“These threats of taking over our country and imposing tariffs that are absolutely ridiculous … I think it’s absolutely irresponsible what they’re doing, and they’re blaming it on fentanyl crossing the border, which doesn’t make any sense,” said Mitchell, speaking before news of the tariff delay.

Fellow Vancouver shopper Rick Piccolo, also speaking before the tariff delay announcement, said he had a new habit of carefully reading product labels to make sure they were not made in the U.S.

“Trump is an idiot,” said Piccolo, “He is like a builder who has only one tool. If you’ve got a nail, he has got a hammer. You’ve got a piece of wood that needs cutting, he’s got a hammer. It’s the only thing he knows. Eventually people will get tired of him being an idiot, but people are going to suffer until that happens.”

Keri Kettle, associate professor of marketing at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer school of management, said that with groceries so expensive, and some American products cheaper than local ones, it could seem like a luxury to choose brands based on where they are manufactured.

But he said it was good to see Canadians rally around their identity by “making more conscious choices about the brands that they support.”

“Some of the provincial governments are taking very strong stances and removing U.S. from the shelf,” he said, referring to measures including the removal of some U.S. liquor from government-run stores in B.C. and Ontario.

“So, I think it’s very much driven by our identity … As a proud Canadian, I think it’s a great thing to have something like this every once in a while to remind people that they’re Canadian first and for a real strong sense of national identity for Canada.”

Atkinson said he grew increasingly displeased by Musk’s meddling in foreign politics, support for right-wing groups, and what he saw as Trump’s threats on Canadian sovereignty.

He’s now paying for his two cars, with about $1,800 left in lease payments on the Tesla while he’s paying $800 a month for the purchase of his new Volkswagen that he picked up 10 days ago.

His only disappointment is that when he went to the Tesla dealer to return his car, many others were waiting to pick up new Teslas.

Tesla does not release sales figures for Canada but rebate data from Transport Canada’s zero-emission vehicle program suggest about 33,000 Teslas received rebates in the nine months to Dec. 31. On a per-month basis, that is down about 15 per cent compared to the approximately 50,000 Teslas that received the rebates in the full 2023-2024 fiscal year.

Atkinson is now rethinking other expenditures.

“I think we should start thinking about considering not travelling to the United States … and it’s hard, I recognize that, but wherever possible, buy Canadian rather than goods imported from the U.S.,” said Atkinson.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 4, 2025.

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press