“Shop Canadian” has become the refrain of consumers and businesses throughout Canada amid US tariffs on Canada. The awakening of Canadian patriotism has ballooned throughout the country with a focus on buying Canadian, supporting Canadian suppliers, and nationalism. This form of Canadian outpouring of nationalism is normally reserved for international hockey or when Canadians proudly embed the Maple Leaf on backpacks, suitcases, and any other item during travel to distinguish themselves from Americans.
The current environment of the ongoing tariffs with the USA is more than just patriotic symbolism and supporting “Shop Canadian”. While patriotic symbolism and supporting Canadian products encourages national identity and endogenous production, the implications represent an opportunity to become more than a temporary inspiration of nationalism and patriotic purchasing. The underlying current of domestic patriotism and American trade tariffs represent the potential for an economic shift to increased national production—substituting American products for ones that are designed, created, produced, and distributed in Canada. This shift is not only a repositioning of Canadian trade from US dependency to a more global trade; it is the opportunity to profoundly transition the internal economic environment and trade within Canada. Canadian patriotism and “Shop Canadian” can provide the impetus for Canadian entrepreneurs to be the suppliers of the Canadian consumer: a home-grown developed economy serving the county.
When considering the necessary shift for Canada to make any appreciable movement to transition its trade, it is quintessential for the economic and political elite to recognize the current situation with a different economic lens. Instead of identifying the challenges presented by the American position on trade with Canada as a problem, this environment opens up an opportunity to Canadians, consumers and businesses, alike, to explore potential avenues of economic building, growth, and diversification from an inside-out approach. Success will depend on the willingness of the economic and political elite to embrace the opportunity to build from the inside-out to achieve the outward success of internal Canadian production and trade.
In order to transition from an American dependency or North-South to a national coast-to-coast trade, politicians, entrepreneurs, businesses, and corporations need to shift their focus to establishing a national economy that serves the various regions of the country. “Shop Canadian” is more than just buying Canadian products; it is supporting Canadian entrepreneurs to grow their business to serve a wider and diversified consumer marketplace to achieve economies of scale. By supporting “Shop Canadian”, consumers are encouraging Canadian entrepreneurs to build their business to be the suppliers, the producers, of goods and services to Canadian business and consumers,. If Canadian companies and entrepreneurs are to be the suppliers and producers in Canada, it is imperative to remove the obstacles that restrict their ability to trade domestically. Internal trade barriers are the primary obstacle for home-grown business inspiration and growth to be the suppliers of goods and services for Canadians.
As stated many times from various sources, the internal trade barriers cause significant obstacles for business to conduct internal trade. The key priority for the provincial governments within Canada is to eliminate these barriers to permit the flow of goods from coast-to-coast to maximize the trade within Canada: the development and growth of the economy from an inside-out approach. Building internal trade is an inside-out approach to creating economies of scale of Canadian companies and entrepreneurs.
Building from the inside-out requires political officials at the provincial and federal level to shift from a domestic protectionist policy to interprovincial “free-trade”. It will require the political will and view that an open internal market is more beneficial than provincial protectionism. It opens up the potential for Canadian entrepreneurs to build economies of scale to become the suppliers of Canadian business and consumers. Creating a barrier free trading zone in Canada generates an opportunity for provincial businesses to expand and grow their operations across the country: they transition to a national business, a Canadian company. This encourages small, medium sized entrepreneurial firms to build economies of scale to serve the county and build from within to explore outward opportunities: the potential for global trade.
Eliminating the internal trade barriers will generate a movement to harmonize the regulatory processes across the country. Harmonization of regulation, safety rules, and other governmental regulatory processes reduce the cost of business and create (dare I say the word) a “National Policy” that serves the entire country. This National Policy would be the driver by which provincial politicians, facilitated by the federal government to build a regulatory process from within to build outwardly. By constructing the economy from a national perspective, businesses are able to develop products to supply the various regions in Canada and grow their enterprises to maximize economies of scale. Achieving economies of scale of Canadian companies improves their ability to develop of their products, grow their business, and diversify their markets.
All of this requires confidence, compromise, and political will to achieve success on behalf of provincial and federal governments. Canadian businesses would also need to realign their view of the domestic economy and opportunities. Rather than viewing the domestic market as small, they need to identify the scope and scale of serving the Canadian market as a part of building from within to achieve outward growth with the goal of becoming national suppliers to the Canadian economy. Whether it is the political or economic decision makers, there is one quintessential condition that must be met: optimism of opportunity.
