As trade war escalates, are B.C. grocery shoppers heeding call to 'buy local'?

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“Here we are,” he said. “That’s money that could be going into our economy, and not the U.S. economy.”

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For Kirkpatrick, the labels do a lot of the work.

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“Safeway is really good. They usually tell you if it’s made in Canada, which really helps,” she said.

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A few blocks away at the No Frills, they don’t. Loose apples sat in bins with prices, but no country of origin, leaving shoppers to guess. The discount store, where tighter budgets tend to land, is also where buying local seems a harder task.

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Kirkpatrick’s own resolve runs in waves.

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“The more (the issue of tariffs) comes up again, it’s a reminder,” she said. “When they put signs up by food that says ‘Made in Canada’, that catches my eye and reminds me.”

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photo of ‘eat local, choose local’ display at the front of a Save On Foods store in Surrey on Monday Photo by Nikola Bennett

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Across much of the fruit aisle, buying local wasn’t even an option. Grapes, strawberries and raspberries were mostly America. The rest came from South Africa, Mexico or Peru. B.C. turned up mainly in cherries, blueberries and Okanagan stone fruit.

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Jill, a self-employed shopper who gave only her first name, buys local when she can, but when something local is “ridiculously” more, she skips it.

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“I’m a single-income, self-employed person with high rent, so I do watch what I spend” she said.

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Others put price first, but not always by choice.

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John Lord, a retiree leaving No Frills with a small black bag, gave a short answer when asked what guides him: “First, price.”

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Groceries have gotten “too expensive,” Lord said, and on a fixed income, there isn’t much room to shop on principle.

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“Ever since COVID, everything’s going so high. You buy it, or you can’t.” He would buy local when the price is right, but often it isn’t.

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John Lord talks about Canada’s trade war with the U.S. in Vancouver on Monday Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG

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Dylan Morim was working the same math from a younger vantage point.

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With a big plastic jug of milk under his arm outside the No Frills, he and his husband were on a tight budget well before the tariffs, he said, and price decides most of what goes in the cart.

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He wouldn’t pin rising grocery bills on Trump alone. Costs have been climbing for five years, he said, since “the COVID era,” with the trade war “exacerbating the issue” rather than causing it. Between two products at the same price, though, he lands local every time.

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“I’m always going to pick the local option, just because I know it has better cash flow through the local economy,” Morim said.

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Not everyone was tracking it. Outside the Safeway, a man in his 80s waited for a cab beside a full cart and asked what a tariff was. Told, he shrugged. He doesn’t follow trade wars, he said, and just buys what he needs.

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The resolve holds for now. In B.C., 60 per cent told polling firm Angus Reid the country can weather the storm, and 70 per cent believe Canada will come out of it stronger.

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Back on the sidewalk on Davie, Daniel wasn’t waiting on Washington to make it easier. He will keep buying Canadian regardless, he said — the way he always has, long before Trump gave anyone a reason to.

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