SAQ to remove American products
The SAQ is to remove American products from its stores starting on Tuesday.
La Presse has a reasonably well considered list of Canadian alternatives to popular U.S. brands.
The main produce I use regularly that comes from the U.S. is lemons and limes. Lufa gets theirs from thoughtful organic producers in the U.S. Are these the kind of people we should be supporting? I’m trying to balance out practicality and conscience here.
Also I bought a beautiful bundle of rapini two days ago, a veg that only ever comes from California, so it may be the last rapini I eat for a long time. I never drank U.S. booze anyway, and I don’t buy much processed food, so the brand list doesn’t help me.
But lemons! How can I cook without a squeeze of lemon?
Blork 19:23 on 2025-02-02 Permalink
FWIW, other countries produce lemons. I’ve seen lemons from South Africa at regular grocery stores pretty regularly. And limes from Mexico. (Probably lemons too.) If lemons and limes from Mexico will be tariffed when going into the U.S. then maybe they’ll be more likely to divert farther north. (And I feel that pain; I go through tons of lemons and limes…)
Ian 22:30 on 2025-02-02 Permalink
When I was growing up all the fresh fruit we got in winter was apples and some citrus but even then not much. The good oranges always came from overseas back then. Of course then food distribution switched to trucking and that all changed. I’m wondering how much this will affect all the produce we get from central and south america as it has to pass through the US.
In any case, Sicily is famous for its lemons. Lots of lemons from Israel too (not just etrog either), though a lot of people are boycotting Israel.
In all seriousness if you aren’t totally married to the idea of fresh lemons there are some very decent brands of Italian lemon juice at most groceries in Little Italy – so not far from you, Kate.
Nicholas 00:12 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
Lots of tricky questions. Is Molson Ex a US drink? The company, Molson Coors, is dually HQ’d in Colorado and Montreal. The ownership is mostly ETFs: mostly Americans with 401(k)s. But it’s brewed here in Montreal? So is Coors.
What about a US company making products in Canada from US recipes and Canadian ingredients, like Coca Cola? Or third-party foreign materials?
As well, the La Presse list claims not to be of non-US products, but Canadian products. Like…Tetley tea? Did global warming make tea growing viable in Canada? Or for soft drinks…le Choix du président? Loblaws? That’s their solution?
Blork 09:51 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
If I heard correctly, the booze stores in BC are specifically targeting products from red states, which sounds perfect to me. After all, this isn’t really “the U.S.” imposing tariffs, it’s TRUMP and the Republicans imposing tariffs. It’s a shame that the good people of California (and other blue states) will suffer for something they had no say in.
The other thing is that boycotts and tariffs should really be directed at things that hurt Trump personally. He’s not doing this for any kind of greater good or whatever, it’s all just him waving his royal dick around, so countermeasures should be aimed at him personally. Unfortunately there’s very little in that regard, as his businesses are mostly in real estate. But if we can sting the red states while sparing the blue states that will potentially hurt him at the polls next mid-terms.
dwgs 11:11 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
I get your point Blork but the idea of a boycott isn’t to punish businesses in red states, it’s to upset the population as a whole so they exert pressure on their government to stop acting like evil dicks.
Chris 12:01 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
Well, if you want to pressure the population, the ‘blue states’ should be pushed too, because the Democrat party is still suffering from whipslash and not being a very loyal opposition at all. They need a kick in the pants.
Nicholas 12:03 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
Anyone can force a vote to overturn these tariffs, but no one has yet. Under the national security law Trump used to impose these tariffs, IEEPA, any member of Congress may introduce a resolution to overturn the tariffs, and it’s privileged, such that within 15 days that resolution becomes the business of the chamber and is privileged over all other business, and the chamber must vote on it within three days. So pressure on all states could force a vote on this.
Blork 12:30 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
But dwgs, punishing business upsets the people. And in particular, it seems like sending the message that “we suffer under Trump and we don’t suffer under not-Trump” hurts Trump specifically because it (potentially) effects the results in the mid-term elections in two years time (longest two years ever BTW).
Kate 12:34 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
Blork, I believe you’re mistaken. I was mistaken when I thought in terms of sparing the nice organic farmers that Lufa does business with. Pressure has to be put on the U.S.A. as a bloc. We can’t cherry‑pick the states or the entities we want to deprive of our trade, for reasons well explained by dwgs, Chris and Nicholas, but also because it’s seldom clear which corporation exactly owns a given business, and what their politics are like.
It’s on individual Americans to pick and choose like that. Not us. We have to hold out against the entire nation now. Vive le Canada.
MarcG 12:45 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
One upside of this situation is that it might nuke Poilievre. Can you be Trump’s cheerleader and a Canadian nationalist at the same time?
Joey 12:48 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
You’re both right – the Canadian response is designed to hurt America as a whole (which will already be seriously harmed by its own tariffs, which will raise prices in the U.S.) and in specific states, where the impact will be disproportionately large, due to manufacturing concentration. In 2018 we were effective at targeting our response in such a way that GOP states and districts felt their impact first and foremost.
Anyway, seems to me that once the Canadian tariffs are in place, you won’t need to do much heavy lifting to determine which products are included or not – forget looking at the label to see where they were made, just look at the price. If it’s an American product, it will be 25% higher… perhaps overly simplistic, but that’s the point, right?
qatzelok 12:51 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
Lemons will increase in price from a dollar each to $1.25 each. This is not the end of lemons for me, and quitting lemons will not bring down Trump or any other president.
My mother used to say: “If you want to protest American behaviors, try not to BE an American yourself.”
Meezly 15:05 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
I really like bourbon. Not sure if there’s a non-American equivalent. Maybe Crown Royal will have to do for the time being.
Ian 16:28 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
If you like a floral bourbon like Bulleit you can almost switch one for one to Canadian Club. Most rye is a little bit sweeter than bourbon but not by much. If you like a smoky bourbon it might just be time to pull up your socks and switch to scotch.
Blork 16:28 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
Yeah, I’m a bourbon fan too, although I barely touch it or any other spirits these days. Crown Royal Northern Harvest (the one that won “best whiskey in the world a few years back, to everyone’s surprise) is actually quite good, especially given the price. While it won’t stand up to a top shelf bourbon (Blanton’s, Heaven’s Door, etc.), it’s as enjoyable as most mid-range bourbons, like Bulleit, Maker’s Mark, etc.
Mark Côté 16:52 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
Speaking of Top Shelf, the Top Shelf distillery in Perth, Ontario, makes some very good whisky, including one that is sherry-cask finished and quite nice. And, strangely, they deliver to Quebec.
dhomas 17:38 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
During the last trade scuffle ahead of the CUSMA deal, I stopped drinking Bourbon (and Jack & Coke, etc.). I ended up finding Crown Royal as a favourite replacement and never went back to American liquor.
While I was trying to find a new favourite, I tried lots of different liquors focusing on Quebec-made products (in retrospect, I think I used to drink too much). I came across a Quebec distillery called La Maison Sivo, which had something called “L’Essence du Single Malt”, which was supposed to be close to (but not quite) a Single Malt Whiskey. I see that they now sell something called “Sivo Le Single Malt” as well as “Sivo Le Rye”. Might have to revisit those. I did find a ton of good local gins, though, Oshlag just because I liked the name, though I don’t remember if it was any good. Artist in Residence was really if you like flavoured gin. I could not find any good Quebec wines, though, so at a certain point I stopped trying.
In any case, just like it did for me last time, this might push people to discover a new favourite, and try out some local product.
Kate 23:51 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
dhomas, my experience is that Quebec has some nice white wines, but I’ve never yet had a local red that was any good.
I don’t often have gin, but I like Ungava. Somebody was also producing a local mescal that was really good, but I don’t think they’re still doing it.
(Looking it up later, it was Rosemont distillery and it was agave.)
Meezly 18:00 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
Thanks for the suggestions! We will persevere 🙂
Tim S. 19:45 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
So, what are we thinking about what to do now? Is this 30 day thing a pause for us to get our stuff in order (stock up on lemon juice?) or is the idea that Trump forgets all about it and everything goes back to normal?
JeffJames 19:52 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
you could start to try and grow your own, https://donnabalzer.com/growing-lemons-and-limes-and-oranges-in-canada/
TC 22:29 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
@Nicholas This is the first I have heard of this, can you provide a link? The US system generally requires any legislation to go through a committee process. I have never heard of any “resolution” that is so privileged that it must be voted on, within a certain number of days. Exception being rules challenges, during debate e.g. US House allowing one member to demand a vote to remove its leader (now changed.)
Kevin 22:40 on 2025-02-03 Permalink
Ian
I must disagree with you. Rye is spicier than bourbon. Bourbon tends to be sweeter — closer to Irish Whiskey.
The number of gins at the SAQ is overwhelming, and that’s pretty much why they slashed store shelf space last year.
Ian 11:15 on 2025-02-04 Permalink
Gins were crazy trendy for a while, everyone was hopping on that bandwagon. Gin is to liquor as IPA is to beer apparently haha
It really depends what bourbon and what rye, but I can see your point with Irish whiskey. If you do like Irish whiskey the SAQ has a new one, Busker – it’s very smooth & at a great price point.
dhomas 14:29 on 2025-02-04 Permalink
@Kate I do quite enjoy Ungava gin. As others have mentioned, there were a ton of local gin options. But I did always come back to Ungava as my “go-to” gin.
I’m more of a red wine drinker, especially during the winter months. And you’re quite right: the Quebec red wines that I sampled were not very good.
I didn’t really try any local white wine. I’m open to suggestions, though!
As for the Bourbon, it is quite different from Rye. I just got used to not drinking Bourbon anymore.