As geopolitical friction between Canada and the United States intensifies, particularly on the trade front, the real battleground may not be in boardrooms or policy circles – it may be in grocery aisles across the country.

Our team at the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, in partnership with Caddle, surveyed nearly 10,000 Canadians at the end of March to assess how consumer sentiment might shift in the face of U.S. tariff actions.

The results are telling – and deeply instructive for food policy analysts, supply chain strategists and retailers alike.

Asked whether they’d be willing to pay a premium (5% to 10%) for Canadian-grown produce, dairy or meat over cheaper U.S. imports, 60.8% of Canadians said yes, either always or for specific products. This willingness was most pronounced among baby boomers, 36.2% of whom said they would always opt to “buy Canadian,” compared with just 25.5% among generation Z.

What this shows is more than patriotic sentiment. It’s a consumer base increasingly aware of the origins of their food and prepared, in many cases, to absorb modest cost differentials to support Canadian producers – especially when they feel national interests are at stake.

But the conditional nature of this support – “only for specific products” – underscores the reality: price elasticity still matters. Sentiment alone does not override household budgeting concerns, particularly among younger or more economically constrained demographics.

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