Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Shoppers continue to buy Canadian: study
🧺Patriotism Ends at the Checkout: Why "Buying Canadian" Is a Luxury Most Can't Afford
“Show me what you value, and I’ll show you your receipts.”
Welcome to 2025, the year of peak retail virtue-signaling — and peak hypocrisy. Everyone’s suddenly waving maple flags from their shopping carts, snapping Instagram selfies with “Made in Canada” tote bags, and bullying their friends into buying overpriced detergent from local suppliers to “stick it to the Americans.”
But let’s get something straight: Canadians didn’t suddenly become more patriotic. They just got scared.
Donald Trump’s tariffs, belligerent speeches, and annexation threats lit a fire under the northern consumer base, sure.
But this wave of “Buy Canadian” buzz is not a social movement. It’s a reactionary retail tantrum wrapped in nostalgia and economic denial.
And just like the Hudson’s Bay point blanket, it’s warm and fuzzy — until you read the price tag.
💸 The Myth of Moral Shopping in an Economic Emergency
Let’s put this plainly: most Canadians can’t afford to be idealistic at the cash register.
The moral superiority oozing from “Buy Canadian” disciples conveniently ignores the daily financial stress that working-class Canadians face — the same working class that politicians and marketers love to weaponize for their patriotic ad campaigns.
Let's connect the dots:
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Minimum wage in Ontario: $16.55/hour (as of 2024).
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Average rent for a one-bedroom in Toronto: $2,500/month.
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Grocery inflation: Up over 20% in the last 3 years.
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Consumer debt: Skyrocketing to $2.37 trillion.
And you want people to pay 30% more for local jam to prove they love their country?
Please. Patriotism doesn’t pay the bills — it hikes them.
🏚️ Hudson’s Bay Didn’t Die Because of “Unpatriotic” Shoppers
Let’s cut the revisionist history. Hudson’s Bay didn’t collapse because Canadians are traitors. It collapsed because it became obsolete, overpriced, and uncompetitive — long before the retail patriots woke up from their economic slumber.
For decades, we watched HBC stagnate while Amazon optimized, Walmart scaled, and Costco weaponized bulk pricing against middle-class scarcity. Nobody boycotted the Bay. They just priced it out of their own lives.
And now, as the Bay liquidates and its historic artifacts get packed into storage crates, we get teary social media eulogies from people who haven’t set foot in the store since Justin Bieber was 14.
🤝 Minimum Wage Is the Real “Buy Canadian” Policy
If you really want Canadians to support local — pay them enough to survive local.
When minimum wage doesn’t cover minimum life expenses, the only thing that trickles down is resentment. No amount of marketing fluff will convince someone to buy $11 local eggs when they can get a dozen for $3.99 at Walmart.
You want to make "Buy Canadian" stick?
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Raise the minimum wage to match actual living costs.
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Build affordable housing that doesn't eat up 70% of monthly income.
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Regulate grocery monopolies so they stop draining working families.
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Create a real safety net, not a GoFundMe economy.
Until then, retail patriotism will remain a gimmick of the privileged, not a movement of the masses.
🥸 Let’s Talk About “Tariff-Free” Bullshit
These local start-ups promising “tariff-free,” “stable price” goods are engaging in reverse colonial capitalism — preying on economic anxiety to push overpriced soap and syrup with a nationalism discount code.
And the “refer a friend” hustle? That’s just patriotic pyramid scheming.
Don’t get it twisted: If you need to bribe people into buying Canadian, it’s not patriotism. It’s marketing.
🎭 The Hypocrisy Olympics: Orange Juice Edition
Angus Reid says 3 in 5 Canadians are “boycotting” U.S. goods. Cute. But let’s check in next February when half the country is chugging Florida orange juice and sunburning in Myrtle Beach.
The same people swearing off Amazon are posting unboxing videos two weeks later.
You know why? Because when money is tight, morals get negotiable. Not because people are weak — because the system is.
📉 Patriotism on Sale: Final Markdown
Look — I love this country. But I’m not going to pretend that waving the flag from a Loblaws parking lot is going to save Canadian jobs or resurrect dead malls.
Hudson’s Bay didn’t fail because we didn’t care enough. It failed because caring doesn’t scale in capitalism unless the price is right.
The sooner we stop pretending otherwise, the sooner we can demand the real structural changes that make buying local a right, not a luxury.
🛒 Until Then, Keep Your Guilt Out of My Grocery Bag
Don’t shame your broke neighbor for choosing Costco over a maple-leaf-branded granola bar. Instead, ask why the system made that their only option.
Until wages rise, housing stabilizes, and economic dignity returns to the checkout aisle, “Buy Canadian” will remain a limited-time offer.
And once the prices spike or the tariffs fade?
So will your patriotism.
🔗 Sources:
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