Before the U.S.-Canada trade war erupted, Ottawa’s stretch of businesses from Island Park Drive into Hintonburg had planned an apolitical and pretty vanilla campaign.
The slogan for this spring’s Wellington West Business Improvement Area was going to be “Wander in Wellington West.” Give it full marks for alliteration, but that’s about it.
But after U.S. President Donald Trump ratcheted up his anti-Canadian rhetoric, and Canadians quickly got behind boycotting American goods in favour of Canadian products, Aron Slipacoff, the Wellington West BIA’s executive director, saw the value in wrapping his 600-strong membership in the flag.
More than 100 “Shop Canadian” banners are due to be posted very soon along the BIA’s 2.1-kilometre stretch of Wellington Street West, which Slipacoff calls Ottawa’s densest concentration of independently owned businesses. Posters for the windows and doors of member businesses are to be distributed in the next few days.
At either end of the BIA, there are already red-and-white, maple leaf-adorned signs proclaiming “Your neighbourhood to shop Canadian.”
“We’re uniquely positioned to say. ‘If you really want to shop Canadian and support Canadian-owned businesses, come for a wander in Wellington West and you’ll be able to do it,’” says Slipacoff.
In a statement, he added that his campaign is about more than just shopping.
“It’s about investing in our community, our people, and our Canadian identity,” Slipacoff said.
“We’re asking Ottawa/Gatineau residents to think twice about going to American stores at American-owned malls, to reconsider their next Amazon purchase, and instead visit a Canadian store in Wellington West.”
The BIA is meeting a moment when economic nationalism is rising across the country. The Made In Canada – Canadian Products group on Facebook has 1.2 million members. For weeks, readers have been writing to this and other newspapers about flexing their purchasing power to Canada’s benefit. In turn, guides to buying local and Canadian such as this one are being compiled.
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“This energy right now does feel distinctly different,” says Katie Frappier, a co-owner of Victoire Boutique, a Wellington West women’s clothing store. “It transcends other political alignments, the breadth of Canadian society that’s trying to politicize how they choose to spend their money.”
Victoire, which has been open since 2006, only sells Canadian-designed and -made items. Frappier says Victoire has seen “many, many people expressing ‘I only want to purchase Canadian-made right now.’”
Before Slipacoff’s initiative, Flock Boutique, a 15-year-old women’s clothing store on Wellington Street West, already had “Made in Canada” messages prominently displayed on its windows, says co-owner Christina Ballhorn.
“We have always supported Canadian. That’s the entire mandate of our shop,” Ballhorn says.
She notes that independent businesses like those that line Wellington Street West were already under threat long before Trump was re-elected, due to the competition posed by online shopping and other pressures.
“With main streets, if people don’t shop at businesses and vote with their dollars, those places cease to exist,” Ballhorn says.
She would like to see enthusiasm for pro-Canadian shopping persist even after the current trade-war turmoil subsides.
“Hopefully this will continue after all this craziness with this person south of the border. I don’t even want to mention his name,” says Ballhorn.
While Slipacoff’s BIA was first off the mark promoting pro-Canadian shopping, he says other BIAs could follow suit. “The shop-Canadian message shouldn’t begin and end between Island Park Drive and Breezehill Avenue,” he says, referring to the boundaries of his BIA.
Nathalie Carrier, the Vanier BIA’s executive director, is impressed that Slipacoff launched his initiative so quickly. “Wow. That’s amazing,” she says.
Carrier is also the vice-chair of the OCOBIA, the 18-member coalition of Ottawa’s BIAs, and she says she and her counterparts are all looking at how they can spread the word about pro-Canadian shopping at their member businesses.
“We’re hearing from members that customers are asking about it and seeking it,” says Carrier. “What we’re seeing is a huge increase in the desire to buy locally.”
Main streets are poised to meet that demand, Carrier says, because “they have been and always will be the source of local, the heart of local.”
