Elbows up, wallet down
What "Buying Canadian" Actually Looks Like Right Now
"Elbows up" has been everywhere the last while—on social media, on products, in the way people talk about where their money goes. The sentiment is real, and it's not hard to understand why. But if you've actually tried to act on it, you've probably run into the same wall we have: buying Canadian is a lot harder than it sounds, and for a lot of everyday purchases, it's not really possible at all.
Take electronics. There's no domestic Canadian computer industry. No Canadian smartphone maker. If you need a laptop, a phone, a set of headphones, you're buying an international brand no matter what—Canadian retailer or not. We're still buying Apple products here, and we don't think that makes anyone a hypocrite. For a huge share of what people actually shop for, "Canadian-made" isn't on the menu.
So "buy Canadian" as a blanket rule breaks down fast. What's left is something more useful: paying attention to where you do have a real choice, and being more deliberate about the spending you can't avoid.
Why the second part matters more than it used to
Here's the part that doesn't get talked about enough: tariffs have pushed the Canadian dollar down, and a weaker dollar means everything priced in USD—which includes a lot of what we buy, even from a Canadian retailer's website—costs more than it did. We're not spending less on Apple products because we've found a Canadian alternative. We're spending less because our dollar simply buys less of it than it used to, so we're being pickier about when we buy.
That's really the practical version of "elbows up" for most people: not a purity test about where every dollar goes, but paying real attention to timing, pricing, and the (shrinking) number of places you do have a genuine domestic option. When your dollar is worth less, the price you pay—and whether you waited for a better one—matters more than it did a year ago.
Where this leaves us
That's a big part of why this site exists. Watching prices and knowing when something's actually a good deal isn't going to fix a trade dispute or bring back an industry that doesn't exist here anymore. But it's a real, practical way to make a weaker dollar go a bit further, on the purchases you were going to make anyway.
And where there genuinely is a Canadian option worth knowing about—a spirit, a retailer, a brand with a more interesting ownership story than you'd guess—we think that's worth pointing out too. We'll be digging into a few of those in the coming weeks: what's actually distilled here, brands that are thriving in Canada even where their US arm folded, and a couple of ownership changes that might surprise you.
For now: watch the prices, buy on your terms, and don't feel bad about the things you genuinely can't buy Canadian. There aren't many of us who can.
Photo by Jason Hafso on Unsplash