Latest news with #BuyBeaver
USA Today
15-03-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Canadian cold shoulder: Trump's antics anger our otherwise polite neighbor
Canadian cold shoulder: Trump's antics anger our otherwise polite neighbor Show Caption Hide Caption US national anthem booed at NBA, NHL games in Canada The U.S. national anthem was booed at multiple sporting events across Canada in reaction to President Donald Trump's tarriffs. MOAB, Utah ‒ Americans are getting the cold shoulder from our neighbors to the north. Canadians are learning to "Buy Beaver" instead of U.S.-made products. They're jeering our national anthem at hockey games. And tourists appear to be heeding their prime minister's suggestion that they skip vacations to Florida and other stateside vacation spots. "Honestly, it's top of mind for everyone in Canada. It's what everyone is talking about," said Christopher Dip, 29, an app developer in Montreal. "But as Canadians, we're also very polite so we're maybe not saying 'F.U.'" Canadians are furious over President Donald Trump's posturing and on-again, off-again tariff trade war. Many were particularly insulted when he even suggested that Canada become the 51st state, run by his golf buddy and retired hockey great Wayne Gretzky. It's gotten so bad Canadians have been booing the American National Anthem during hockey games. The impacts are already being felt in the United States, where many Canadian tourists have cancelled vacations. U.S. government statistics show the number of Canadians crossing the border dropped 12.5% in February compared to 2024, with a particularly sharp fall-off in drivers, down more than 15% compared to last year. In Moab, a popular late-winter destination for Canadians, several tour operators said they've seen multiple cancellations worth tens of thousands of dollars. Other impacts: Canadian backlash erupts over Trump's tariffs. Trade war hits wine, spirits. What's next? "They're writing in, saying 'I can no longer in good conscience do business with American businesses,'" said Lorenzo McGregor, 45, the co-owner of Tex's Riverways boat shuttle service here. "And then we've just had some angry responses (saying) 'you probably voted for this, so this is what you get.'" McGregor said he's seen about $10,000 in cancellations from Canadians, whose presence is so notably absent that his company hasn't started shuttling passengers down the Colorado River into Canyonlands National Park, as it normally would this time of year. Other tour operators in Moab said they've also had Canadian cancellations. Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier this month said his nationa had been offended by Trump's talk, and he called on his fellow Canadians to avoid visiting the U.S. The dispute has boosted Trudeau's Liberal Party, which has been slumping in the polls since 2021 but now leads the opposition Conservatives by a narrow margin. "Canadians are hurt. Canadians are angry. We're going to choose not to go on vacation in Florida or Old Orchard Beach (Maine) or wherever," Trudeau said at a news conference. Not everyone has cancelled their trips. Mountain biker Stephen Krause, 51, a retired oil industry tech worker from Edmonton, said he his wife stuck with their planned two-month road trip around the American southwest. "It's warmer here than Canada and there's no snow." He acknowledged the fraught relationship between the two countries, but said so far things have been going ok. "People have not mentioned the words hockey or politics at all," he said. In Montreal, in response to the outrage, Dip, the app developer, did what app developers do, and built an app with colleague Alexandre Hamila that helps Canadians identify Canadian-made products. The app is called "Buy Beaver," after the country's national animal. Introduced about a month ago, the app already has more than 100,000 downloads, which is the Canadian equivalent of about 1 million downloads in the United States, they said. Hamila and Dip said app users fall into two camps: Some want to avoid American-made products in general, and others who specifically want to buy Canadian. Canada is among the biggest trading partners of the United States, buying more than 17% of total U.S. exports in 2022, while also selling the U.S. more than $430 billion in products, according to federal statistics. "You actually see people crouching down in the aisles, people checking products one by one, checking the labels, seeing where they're made," Hamila said. "People are trying to find solutions to hit the U.S. economy." Dip said a small number of young Canadians he knows are open to the concept of becoming part of the United States, but said older Canadians are more patriotic. "The people who seem most pissed are the older ones," he said. "The feeling we're getting, the messages we're getting, is that they're never going to support Americans again. For them, it seems irreversible."
Euronews
24-02-2025
- Business
- Euronews
New 'Buy Canadian' apps released as boycott of US goods in response to proposed tariffs grows
Some consumers in Canada are looking to buy locally-made products as a way to boycott items coming from the United States. Well, now there are half a dozen apps, all developed within the last few weeks, that will tell them. A search for "Buy Canadian" on Apple iOS or Google Play app stores brings up a list of red-and-white options including Buy Beaver; Is this Canadian?; Maple Scan: Buy Canadian; Shop Canadian; Canly-Buy Canadian; Is it Canadian?; and Check the Label. The apps come amid a souring relationship with the US due to President Donald Trump'ssweeping 25 per cent tariffs that he will put on all Canadian goods starting March 1, excluding energy, which will see a 10 per cent tariff. The apps allow users to scan everyday products to determine whether the product is Canadian or has Canadian ties. How do 'Buy Canadian' apps work? The apps use different solutions to get that information. Buy Beaver, a Montreal-made "community-driven platform" where users rate products on a scale from one to five based on how Canadian they are, has consistently ranked among the top five free shopping apps for iPad on Apple iOS, according to app analytics company Sensor Tower. Other apps like Is This Canadian? use artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse the photos taken with the app to give users a breakdown of what they're buying. Maple Scan provides the company's history and parent company and marks whether a specific good will be impacted by the impending American tariffs. If they determine a product isn't Canadian, the apps offer a list of "Canadian alternatives" to shop instead. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had announced a two-part set of tariffs against American products before the US postponed its tariff implementation to March 1st. In this initial plan, Canada ordered an immediate 25 per cent tariff on 30 billion Canadian dollars (€20.15 billion) worth of goods, like beverages, cosmetics, and paper products. A second list of tariffed goods that was supposed to be released was estimated to be worth 125 billion Canadian dollars (€84 billion).
CBC
21-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Want to buy Canadian? There's an app for that
Social Sharing Picture this: You're wandering around the grocery store, trying to buy Canadian. That carton of blueberries is a no go — and that loaf of bread doesn't make the cut, either. The juice you wanted to buy was made in Canada … using imported ingredients. Wouldn't it be great if your phone could just magically tell you whether the products you want to buy are Canadian or not? Well, now it can — thanks to savvy entrepreneurs across the country who've created apps meant to help shoppers identify the origin of everyday staples. There's Shop Canadian, the brainchild of two software developers in Edmonton; Buy Beaver, which was dreamt up by two Montreal entrepreneurs; O SCANada, created by a mother and son in Calgary; and Maple Scan, an AI-powered tool made by a Calgary researcher. All four apps have a feature that lets shoppers scan an item's barcode to determine how Canadian it is. "We saw on social media a lot of different lists of products being shared. They were not always correct, so we thought we had to find a way to centralize all of this information," said Alexandre Hamila, one of the co-creators of Buy Beaver. After a user scans the barcode of a product, the Buy Beaver app rates how Canadian the product is on a scale of one to five based on several criteria: where it's made, where the ingredients or materials are from and who owns the brand. "Right now, everything is community-driven," explained Christopher Dip, the app's other co-creator. "So if you can scan a product and it says it's not rated yet, then you are able to rate it and give your own info. And as more people vote, we expect the scores to get more and more accurate. "If the product's properly labelled, you technically don't need our app. But you might need our app to know if the parent company is an American one or not. Some people might argue that even if it's a product of Canada and it's supporting Canadian jobs, if the profits go back to the U.S., then that might be something to consider," added Dip. "But we just give that info to the community, and they can make a decision if they want to buy that product or not." Like Dip and Hamila, the Edmonton-based creators of Shop Canadian say they were inspired by a growing movement to buy Canadian — one that emerged in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats against this country. "We were in our kitchen, and I was trying to figure out if what I was eating was Canadian and I had to jump through several hoops," said William Boytinck, who developed Shop Canadian with his business partner, Matthew Suddaby. "And eventually I came up with the idea." WATCH | Meet the app creators making it easier to Buy Canadian: Apps to make buying Canadian easier pop up in patriotism push 6 days ago Duration 2:00 Apps to make buying Canadian products at the grocery easier are showing up across the country with entrepreneurs crowdsourcing information about the origins of materials and ingredients. The duo's "wildest dream" was to keep a few hundred dollars in Canada, but the app has since blown up, and now relies on crowdsourced information. It searches through a database of company-registered product codes, and then shows the user whether the brand that made the product is registered in Canada, the U.S. or elsewhere. There are still a few kinks to work out, especially as high traffic leads to technical difficulties. Plus, Boytinck and Suddaby are trying to decide how purist the app will be in determining whether something is Canadian or not. "If it's imported by a Canadian company and packaged in Canada, sometimes we'll recognize it as Canadian," said Boytinck. Retailers hearing demands for Canadian products When the economy gets tough or the supply chain is disrupted, people pay more attention to where their money is going, said Michael Mulvey, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management. The "Buy Canadian" apps that have recently cropped up are "a way to make a more educated consumer, a more demanding consumer," he said, adding that a crowdsourcing approach used by the likes of Buy Beaver and Shop Canadian also helps people feel more engaged during times of crisis. WATCH | Buy Beaver co-creators talk buying Canadian amid tariff tensions: Co-founders of Buy Beaver app talk about buying Canadian amid tariff tensions 7 days ago Duration 6:11 Alexandre Hamila and Christopher Dip speak to CBC News Network about their effort to help Canadians find locally made products. Correction: This video has been updated to remove footage showing the incorrect app. "Often people feel sort of helpless when all the world's spinning around them, and this is a way for them to take action and have a voice," said Mulvey. "And I think that's a positive thing in democracy." There could be a trade-off between the consumer's preferred product and the one that costs less to buy, adds Mulvey. People might have to look at their wallets and decide if they want to pay the voluntary tax presented in front of them, and "there's going to be a lot of people who just can't afford to partake at this moment." Will brands and retailers take the hint? At the very least, the demand for these tools might force companies to listen. Loblaws, for example, is already showcasing products made in Canada in stores, online and in flyers, the grocery giant's spokesperson Catherine Thomas recently told The Canadian Press. And Pierre St-Laurent, chief operating officer of Sobeys and Safeway owner Empire, said customers are asking where products come from. The grocer is responding with more signage and information to help them make their picks. "Retailers — if there's demand by customers to find Canadian goods, which there seems to be — I think it's in their interest to help them find those goods and help their search processes," said Mulvey.
