Cross-Border Tension: How National Identity Shapes What Canadians Buy
For some, avoiding U.S. products is patriotism. For others, it’s a luxury belief only the comfortable can afford.
The relationship between Canada and the United States has always been complicated, but new data suggests the way we handle our “neighbour to the south” depends almost entirely on when you were born and how much is in your bank account.
In this latest segment of The Missing Middle, Mike Moffatt and Cara Stern dig into a fascinating generational rift. While recent polling shows that the vast majority of Boomers are actively avoiding U.S.-made products, younger Canadians seem much less inclined to join the boycott.
As Cara points out, for a generation that grew up with trade instability and a skyrocketing cost of living, “standing up to Trump” feels like a secondary concern next to the immediate reality of paying rent.
The conversation takes a personal turn when Mike recounts the story of an ice storm, a fallen tree, and the sudden need for a new car. His decision to hunt for a Canadian-assembled vehicle leads to a deeper look at what conservative writer Rob Henderson calls “luxury beliefs”, the idea that certain moral or political stances are essentially social fashions that the wealthy can afford to wear, while the working class bears the consequence of higher prices.
From the symbolic importance of Canadian-made jam to Mark Carney’s recent calls for “sacrifice” at Davos, Mike and Cara ask the hard questions: Is our national identity being shaped by those who can afford the premium? And if the current system isn’t working for younger people, why should they be the ones expected to sacrifice to save it?
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Below is an AI-generated transcript of the Missing Middle podcast, lightly edited.
Mike Moffatt: So, Cara, as you know I love polling data. So here’s some data for you. A recent Nanos poll finds that 88% of Canadians age 55 and up are less likely, or somewhat less likely to buy a product made in the U.S. than a year ago. It’s ten percentage points lower for younger groups. And that doesn’t seem to be a rogue poll.
A Research Co. poll from last summer, which asks a slightly different question, found that three quarters of Canadians aged 55 and up will avoid purchasing a U.S. made product when a substitute is available. For other age groups, it’s closer to about 50%. So all of this raises an obvious question: Why are older Canadians far more likely to change their purchasing habits, in response to the actions and words of the Trump government relative to other Canadians?
Cara Stern: Well, I feel like everyone’s pretty mad about the way that the Trump government is treating Canada, but I feel like older Canadians have spent so much more of their lives thinking of America as that stable partner, that friend. And that connection is so much more central to how they see Canada compared to younger generations. Many people remember when Free Trade was first signed and then stayed that way for decades. They were close partners economically. But also, I hear a lot of people referring to how Canada stepped in after 9/11 to fight with America in Afghanistan. That moment seems to be a huge betrayal. Nowadays people go, remember that? We were there for you. And younger Canadians have spent much more of their lives with instability in that relationship. You think about Gen Z, they grew up with Trump being president through so many parts of their lives where they were aware of the world. So, America hasn’t actually been that stable long term partner in their minds compared to older generations. So maybe it doesn’t feel as central to the Canadian identity that we’re a partnership with America.
But also, I suspect there’s a lot of people who don’t believe the system has been working for them who are younger. So while people are terrified at how Trump might reshape Canadian society, redefining our relationship with America. There are a lot of younger Canadians who do want to see our society reshaped. And if you look at the polling from last election, it’s really clear that Boomers cared a lot more about responding to Trump as their top issue. Whereas younger Canadians by far considered affordability and cost of living to be their top issue.
Mike Moffatt: Yeah, I think there’s a lot there. We do have different top of mind issues. I do think younger Canadians do see the appeal of changing the system and radical change. But, I also wonder how much wealth and time they will bring into this. So I think of folks like my parents and their friends who will go to the grocery store or do online research and find out where a particular type of jam is made and go, is there a Canadian substitute for that? And I would love to be able to do that. I just don’t have the time to be doing that research. I’m at Food Basics or Walmart with the kids and I’m just going to grab this because it’s quick, I’m not spending a ton of time reading the labels. So I think there is an element of not just how we feel about Canada, U.S. relationships, but I do think wealth and income and time also explains the differences in behavior.
Cara Stern: There are people who we know take this to an extreme, and I know that you’re one of them in some ways, even if it’s not at the grocery store. Tell us about your new car.
Mike Moffatt: Absolutely. So while I say I don’t have time to compare types of jam at the grocery store, I do admit, for larger purchases, I do this. I have a very recent example here. In London, Ontario, where I was with my family over Christmas, on Boxing Day there was a big ice storm. And what ended up happening was a tree fell on my car. My car was parked at my mother-in-law’s in Old North, near Western. An older tree got coated in ice and then, boom! It landed on my car. Complete write off.
So all of the sudden I’m in the market for a new car, and I wasn’t expecting to be. And I did some research and I think over pretty much my entire life, I’ve always bought a car assembled in the United States. Just whatever car I happened to want just happened to be assembled there. But I didn’t feel overly comfortable, not in a boycott sense, but a car is a vehicle that you’re out and about in and it says something about you.
So I said, can I find a vehicle that is built here in Canada that meets my needs? So we ended up getting a Honda CRV hybrid. I’ve never owned a Honda before, but I’m quite happy with it. It was just that.
I wasn’t overly comfortable buying a car assembled in the US and driving around because again, of what I thought it signaled me. And I’m somebody who’s worked in manufacturing. I’ve done reports on automotive supply chains. I know in my head that it doesn’t matter which car I get that’s made in North America. It’s got parts from Canada, parts in the US, parts from Mexico. We don’t really have Canadian cars. We have NAFTA cars or CUSMA cars. But I was still like, if I can get a car assembled here in Ontario, I’m going to do it. So that’s what I did. And that got me thinking, I wonder if other people are doing the same thing. Not just with the jam that they’re buying at the Food Basics, but on cars and larger purchases as well.
Cara Stern: Well cars are so expensive, I suspect a lot of people looking at getting a car are mostly looking at the best combination of their needs versus the cost of the car, and balance those two things. Because when you add in where it’s assembled, that feels like a luxury that many people can’t afford.
Mike Moffatt: Yeah, it really is, and I think we have to understand that. And you mentioned, a luxury that people can’t afford. You could take it further and say that’s just a luxury belief. This is a term you see online, quite a bit and that term comes from the conservative writer Rob Henderson. The idea behind a luxury belief is that those beliefs create what he calls a social fashion, that the elites can wear them without consequence, but they can be dangerous for those who lack a safety net. So, it’s easy for somebody who doesn’t have to worry too much about what the price of jam is or the price of cars to say, I’m just not going to buy the best value, but I’m going to start to take these other things into account. That’s easier for a person like me and my family at our income and wealth level than it might be for somebody who is struggling to get by.
So if there is a belief out there that what it means to be a “good Canadian” is that you should pay more for a good not made in the United States, then absolutely, that ventures into luxury belief territory and is problematic. For people in higher income and wealth brackets, they won’t really notice the extra expense. But for those with more limited means, it could make the difference between being able to put food on the table or pay the rent. And I don’t think we should judge lower income families for looking for the best value.
This is something that’s bothered me for a long time. So, for example I always get a bit bothered when people dismiss the benefits of global trade, such as going, “Sure we can get t-shirts and sneakers cheaper, big deal.” And to be clear, there is a very healthy debate that needs to take place and has taken place about the benefits and costs of globalization. But it can be a little bit galling to hear well-off people diminish the value of cheaper goods to lower income households. So, to be clear, I don’t think personally avoiding U.S. made products enters into the category of luxury belief. I think it only becomes problematic or only becomes a luxury belief if I go around starting to expect that other people make the same decisions that I did.
Cara Stern: I don’t usually see people judging others for not buying Canadian products if they can’t afford to.
I know early on when people were boycotting American produce in grocery stores it was fun watching how you’d see the Loblaws price this way, and then they would drop it and drop it and drop and all of a sudden it was super clearance and people were still not buying it if they could afford not to. But it was also nice for people who normally can’t afford those things to be able to actually get them for much cheaper than they normally would. I don’t think there was judgment if it was out of a financial need.
But the biggest place I do see some judgment of people buying American is people who are choosing to travel to America right now, unless they absolutely have to.
Mike Moffatt: Yeah, we see that as well. I hear that conversation, both with people my age and older folks. And to be clear if you have to do it for work, absolutely. And I don’t think we should judge people for that. On a personal level, I haven’t been to the United States in a while. I would love to go down south and go to spring training, but I’m just not comfortable doing that. But at the same time, I don’t want to judge people who are. You never know what’s going on with people’s lives.
So, I think that can get problematic when we’re judging. But, at the same time, when you purchase something or you travel somewhere in a very real sense, you are voting with your wallet. So I’d like to be a little bit conscious of how I spend my money.
Cara Stern: I guess that makes sense. That’s fair.
Mike Moffatt : Now, where I do think we get into luxury believe territory is the expectations we place on our politicians and how they respond to the actions and words of the U.S. government. We go back to that summer 2025 Research Co. poll on actions like cutting off energy exports to the US, or having the Prime Minister publicly criticize President Trump. They’re all more popular, with those age 55 and up then for age groups of other people and to be clear, it’s not a huge gap — it’s only 6 to 10 percentage points — but it is real. It is statistically significant. I think a lot of that gap can be explained due to worries about what it means for the economy, what it means for jobs. It’s a little bit easier of a belief to have if you’re retired.
Mike Moffatt: I think about Prime Minister Carney’s remarks in Davos back in mid-January, which were only indirectly critical of Trump, but they were critical. I noticed that Boomers and Gen Xers like me absolutely loved the speech for the most part. But I do wonder how it resonated with Millennials and Gen Z. Do you think it was received as positively, or do you think they were worried about economic blowback, and what it might mean for jobs and affordability?
Cara Stern: I’ve almost exclusively heard people compliment it. I haven’t heard that much criticism of it. Even Pierre Poilievre had to compliment it. So I don’t know if this is just a bias of the type of people who listen to a speech from the World Economic Forum. I don’t know whether there’s young people who just wouldn’t listen to it, who would be mad about the contents.
But for the most part, what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard is people saying that was great, that it was a great speech. It really showed what we’re feeling about the world right now.
However, what I’ve noticed is skepticism from younger Canadians about whether Carney understands how hard Canada is for them these days, because he’s done very well under a system that’s worked for his generation. He was at the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England during a time when they engaged in quantitative easing, which we know increases home prices dramatically. And he keeps talking about the sacrifices and hard times that we’ll experience as we rejig the economy in response to Trump. And it makes me wonder if young people are expected to be the ones to make those sacrifices, because I haven’t seen him signal that those sacrifices should be shared across the board. He hasn’t really said what those sacrifices specifically are, and that makes me worry.
Who are the ones expected to make those sacrifices? It does seem like it appeals to many boomers who have confidence he’s going to protect the Canada that they know and love, but that Canada hasn’t been working for a lot of younger people. So I don’t know whether he’s appealing to them in the same way at this point.
Mike Moffatt: Yeah, I think you’re right. And I worry about something that you had mentioned earlier that younger people are looking for more transformative change. And they’re probably not seeing it right now.
So, we can debate the merits of the GST grocery rebate that the Prime Minister announced back in January. You go, that’s a few extra bucks in our pocket. That’s a great thing. But, what is the sort of transformative change we’re going to have? How do we create a Canadian economy that works for younger people in this current environment?
And to be clear, it wasn’t really working for younger people before Trump. So you would think that now we could use this as an opportunity and say, the global order is rebuilding itself. How can we use that as an opportunity to fix some systems that weren’t working particularly well, that were in fact broken for younger people?
I’m not seeing much of that. And I wonder if and when that’s coming or if there is this concern that maybe we don’t want to tinker with too much because, any certainty that we give for younger people, maybe that’s going to harm us electorally with older voters. I really don’t know. But there does seem to be a certain level of caution there, and not any real plan to address the concerns of all of those younger people.
Cara Stern: He knows that his base is largely boomers, largely older people. And so I wonder if he’s willing to not poke them at all or if he’s too scared to do that because I know that when we talk about housing, we want to make housing cheaper. That obviously comes out of the cost of homes right now. So the people who have them are going to lose money. And it makes me worry that he won’t want to harm people’s wallets who are his base, in which case, what happens to younger people? What’s his version of Canada that we’re building now? And I hope it’s a more equal one. So I keep looking out to see whether they’ll start signaling what they’re hoping to do for younger people.
Mike Moffatt: And I think you and I are going to be talking about it off and on for the rest of the year, because I think that’s the number one thing I’m going to be watching as well.
Are we going to take this moment to make transformative change? To create an economy that works for all age groups? Are we just going to make these little changes here and there, put a few extra bucks in people’s wallets to compensate them for the higher price gaps or whatever, but not really transform the system in any meaningful way?
Cara Stern: Thanks for watching and listening. Our producer is Meredith Martin, and our editor is Sean Foreman.
Mike Moffatt: And if you have any thoughts or questions about the Honda CRV, please let us know in the comments or send us an email to Missing Middle Podcasts at gmail.com.
Cara Stern: And we’ll see you next time.