Due to the recent tariff turmoil, buying Canadian is all the rage — and Ottawa and Eastern Ontario store owners are ready to respond.
“The explosion in paying attention to what’s really made here and what’s not … has been huge,” says Heather Mitchell-Adams, owner of Modern Thymes Health and Bulk Foods in Smiths Falls.
She believes some consumers trying to shop locally may be making things needlessly complicated for themselves. Rather than peering at supermarket labels to figure out where and how a product is made, they can rely on local store owners, who are in contact with their suppliers every day.
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When David McPhedran’s parents emigrated from the United Kingdom in 1968, they didn’t have much, but Canada was known as the land of opportunity, and that’s what they sought for
“Those small business owners have already done a lot of that legwork,” Mitchell-Adams points out.
Shopping at a locally owned store also keeps more money in the community, she points out, which doesn’t just benefit the entrepreneur. As well as employing local staff and buying from regional suppliers, independent shops also give money to community sports teams and charities.
For Mitchell-Adams and many other Eastern Ontario entrepreneurs, focusing on local products and suppliers has always been part of their company’s DNA. That makes them uniquely positioned to capitalize on the current interest in shopping Canadian.
Katie Weststrate is the owner of Healthily Ever After, a health food shop in Merrickville. She says the store prioritizes local products — including milk, eggs, produce and honey — for environmental, economic, sustainability and health reasons. Local produce is fresher than imported alternatives, she notes, as well as less environmentally damaging to ship.
Not everything in the store is 100 per cent Canadian, she says. Even locally made granola may contain imported ingredients that can’t be grown here, such as almonds or coconut. Even so, supporting Canadian companies is a worthwhile goal, she argues.
“It all comes down to that — doing the best we can.”
Like other local shopkeepers, Weststrate points out that local products aren’t necessarily more expensive than national or international brands.
“We bend over backwards to keep staples as affordable as we can,” she says. “People really need to take the time to go and check before assuming (a small store) is more expensive.”
Keeping prices affordable is also a key concern for Emily Arbour, owner of Cheerfully Made Goods + Markets in Almonte. The shop sells clothing, jewellery, art, bath products, food and more, 90 per cent of it made by independent local artisans and crafters.
Arbour loves running the shop — “I’m in it for the brick and mortar, the customers in my store talking to me about their new puppy,” she says — but online sales help keep the store financially viable.
A significant portion of those online sales are to American customers. If a 25 per cent tariff is added to those Canadian exports, Arbour’s bottom line will take a hit, unless she can keep her export prices in check.
“I feel like we’re going to be absorbing this 25 per cent. I’m going to raise prices where I can, but because I purchase ethically and Canadian-made (items), my margins are not huge,” she says.
In addition, local makers often use imported American materials, such as wax and paint, so any retaliatory tariffs on incoming U.S. goods will affect those costs, adding more pressure to prices.
Further complicating things, the Canadian dollar may keep falling, decreasing the relative price of Cheerfully Made’s products for online U.S. shoppers, but increasing the costs of imported supplies for makers.
Everything’s in flux, as it has been pretty much since she started Cheerfully Made in 2013, Arbour says. “We’re waiting for some ‘precedented’ times,” she adds with a chuckle.
On the bright side, Almonte entrepreneurs are already talking about ways they can cooperate to withstand the economic uncertainty. “We have quite a community to lean on,” Arbour says. “I think it will bring us together.”
Here’s where you can buy local in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario:
Shops
- Maker House Company, 987 Wellington St. W., Ottawa (gifts, books, home decor and more)
- Flock Boutique, 1275 Wellington St. W., Ottawa (clothing, accessories and jewellery)
- The Piggy Market, 400 Winston Ave., Ottawa (meat)
- Riverguild Fine Crafts, 51 Gore St. E., Perth (art and crafts)
- Wendy’s Country Market, 408 Fortune Line Rd., Rideau Lakes (food)
- Wilno Craft Gallery, 19 Borutski St., Wilno (art and crafts)
- Valley Artisans’ Co-op, 33373 Highway 17, Deep River (art and crafts)
Buy direct from the maker
- Mariposa Farm, 6468 County Rd. 17, Plantagenet (meat)
- Garden Path Homemade Soap, 284 Pleasant Corners Rd. E., Vankleek Hill (bath and body products)
- Paddye Mann Clothing, 156 MacFarlane St., Pakenham
- Mrs. McGarrigle’s Fine Foods, 311 St. Lawrence St., Merrickville (mustards and more)
- King’s Lock Craft Distillery, 5 Newport Dr., Johnstown
For more options, check out the full list on Ottawa Road Trips.
Award-winning Ottawa travel writer Laura Byrne Paquet shares her sightseeing tips for Eastern Ontario and beyond on her website, Ottawa Road Trips.
