A wave of patriotism brought on by tensions with the United States and President Donald Trump’s tariffs, is contributing to a rise in sales of a national Canadian symbol.
Flag manufacturers in Barrie report a spike in sales during what is typically a slow quarter, as Canadians look to purchase more domestic products in response to tariff threats.
“it’s been astronomical. It’s hard to keep up,” said Brian Naish, co-owner of Flags Unlimited.
Flags Unlimited produces roughly 500,000 flags annually, but sales so far this year are up as much as four times the regular amount, according to Naish.
The company has added an additional shift to meet the demand and is considering the addition of a third one.
It’s also looking to hire more sewers to bolster its workforce.
“In periods of triumph or in periods of tragedy, we see a spike in sales. So, you think of the Olympics, or the Humboldt Broncos tragedy, there’s certain things that bring out a sense of community and pride,” Naish said. “This is a bit unprecedented. This has been an attack on our country and what it’s doing is bringing everybody together for the common Canadian Good.”
At The Flag Store in Barrie’s south end, orders for its flags are also up as much as three to four times the regular amount.
According to its CEO, Cecilia Burke, foot traffic at its Thornton retail store has been coming at a remarkable rate.
“We have people waiting in the parking lot before we even get here at 8 a.m,” she told CTV News. “So, that was nice!”
The vast majority of Burke’s sales stem from Canadian consumers or retailers.
However, since the threat of tariffs began in January, some of her purchases have come from an unexpected location.
“Americans are buying our flags,” she said. “They’re putting comments in our comment section saying, ‘we want to show our support, we know it’s going to cost us another $30 in shipping, but we want to make sure that flag is flying on our house to show our support.”
The rise in patriotism isn’t just exclusive to what can be flown on Canadian’s properties, but also, to what they can purchase to consume.
At Sugar City Cupcakes and Cakes, owner Kerry Hayward has undertaken a massive rebranding in order to pay tribute to her country.
Themed and named after various cities around the world, Hayward has renamed all 32 of her cupcake flavours after Canadian cities in response to tariff threats.
“This was really just a no-brainer,” she told CTV News." It’s just a matter of showing our pride."
Hayward said roughly 40 per cent of her cupcakes were named after American cities, some of which were her most popular sellers.
Since rebranding her product two weeks ago, she said some of her customers were a bit confused at first, but fell in love with the idea.
“Our New York Red Velvet, we changed that to the North York Red Velvet, our Atlantic City to the Calgary Chocolate Stampede,” she said. “Winnipeg Winter is one of our best sellers and this lady had come in and said, ‘I’m from Winnipeg, I heard you had this cupcake, I need to take some back with me!”
Hayward said she intends to keep the Canadian city theming for all her cupcakes going forward, no matter how the situation plays out on an international scale.
