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So, with the prospects of a still looming on the horizon, I wanted to support my country — even if it meant finally breaking my Coca-Cola addiction.

I made the decision to join tens of thousands in the “Buy Canadian” movement, an attempt by locals to champion Canadian goods and boycott U.S. products. To satisfy my ego, I wanted to go one step further and cut off all contact with U.S. goods and services, from Netflix to McDonald’s. 

But as I and many others have quickly learned, it’s not so cut-and-dry when figuring out which goods are “all-Canadian” — nor how much Canadian producers are involved in the production of U.S.-manufactured products.

Is it even possible to buy all-Canadian?

It’s not as simple as avoiding the “made in USA” label at grocery stores and shopping outlets. Our two nations’ economies and supply chains have become entwined through decades of free trade; products “made” in Canada may still contain ingredients produced in the U.S., and vice-versa.

It was a thought that felt pertinent as I drove to my local Loblaws (farewell, Walmart and Costco) in my old, American-made Toyota. I’m not in the market for a new used car, but even if I were, it would be virtually impossible to purchase a “purely Canadian designed and manufactured vehicle,” Greg Anderson, a political science professor at the University of Alberta, told me.

Even cars manufactured in Canada are made with parts built in the U.S. and Mexico, he explained: “These things are produced in bits and pieces in all three countries.”

The same goes for groceries: “We trade live animals and (other ingredients) for our food sector back and forth across the border, just like automobiles,” Anderson said. “It applies to almost everything in the grocery store.”

This presents another problem — by boycotting American goods, we could inadvertently be hurting the Canadian manufacturers behind the ingredients that go into these products, noted Sui Sui, a professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University.

It’s why she recommends against avoiding goods simply because they’re American-made. Instead, she told me, target products with a direct tie to the Trump administration — like Tesla, run by Elon Musk. “You need to be strategic about it,” she said. “It doesn’t need to be every brand.”

After loading up on all-Canadian groceries, from Blue Cow logo milk to arugula from GoodLeaf Farms, I drove in silence (after cancelling my membership to Spotify, a Swedish company that has nonetheless been criticized for platforming pro-Trump voices) to a nearby Tim Hortons — before remembering the brand was owned by a Canadian-American multinational company, Restaurant Brands International.

How Canadian must a company be to merit a boycott? To avoid the existential angst, I settled for a $6 Americano from a local coffee shop.

That’s another issue. Many of the products we import from the U.S. are cheaper than domestic alternatives and imports from other countries, Anderson noted. We can and do grow our own strawberries in Ontario, for example, but it’s generally more affordable to buy them from California or Mexico.

Back home, I sat down for a YouTube session before remembering my all-Canadian vow. I’d stopped using Netflix and Disney Plus months ago, and had just cancelled Crunchyroll. My social media-addled brain reflexively reached for Reddit, before I shut that idea down, too.

It’s difficult to use the internet without supporting an American company.

All major Western social media platforms are owned by U.S. companies. Google runs my private email address, and Microsoft hosts my work email. I can’t work without using American services, and many won’t be able to read my work without them either.

A large amount of the internet is powered by cloud-based services, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Even the Star’s website, one of the most visited news sites in Canada, .

At the end of the day, my experiment was doomed to fail. It’s just not feasible, at least at the moment, to go fully Canadian — nor is it even recommended, experts say.

Is it even worth boycotting U.S. products?

Our tendency to boycott is only natural when confronted with the “slap in the face” of threatened U.S. tariffs, Anderson told me. But at the end of the day, “the reality is it’s a drop in the ocean” compared to the influx of products flowing across our border.

“Boycotts are mostly symbolic and short-lived,” Anderson explained — “but the symbolism is important in that time period.”

That said, the “Buy Canadian” movement will likely drive much-needed attention to Canadian businesses at a time of economic turmoil, he continued. 

For Sui, it makes more sense to be selective about what we can do without. “We buy U.S. product because of its price, because of its availability and its large supply,” she said. Seeking out and purchasing only Canadian products can cost more and take effort.

For many, after a “cost-benefit analysis, the costs are too high,” she continued.

But there are still benefits to a U.S. boycott; it can send a message if enough Canadians do it, and may be helpful as Ottawa negotiates the terms of Trump’s tariffs, Sui said. But for most people, a blanket boycott on U.S. goods just isn’t sustainable.

Inside the growing ‘Buy Canadian’ movement

Trump’s threatened tariffs have encouraged a tidal wave of Canadians to buy local and avoid American goods. The subreddit r/BuyCanadian has exploded in recent weeks, nearly doubling in size to 151,000 members since the new year.

“Just yesterday alone, I think there were almost 50,000 new members here,” said Jared Rusch, the Saskatoon native who started the group.

Rusch kicked off r/BuyCanadian in 2018, inspired by the first time Trump threatened a trade war with Canada. He didn’t expect his humble subreddit to become relevant again, seven years later.

Nor did Rusch expect the second round of tariffs to unite Canadians in the way it has.

“It’s unfortunate the reasoning (behind why) this had to happen. But in a way, it’s kind of a wake-up call” to support Canadian businesses, he said. “It’s kind of a blessing and a curse.”