B.C. Premier David Eby took early aim at hundreds of millions of dollars worth of government procurement from U.S. sources soon after the tariff war started.

The “buy Canadian first” directive was intended to show the government was on the same page as the public in registering resentment at U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to impose huge tariffs on Canada.

But there are limits. One of them is in the health sector, where U.S. giants supplying expensive medical equipment often outbid firms from elsewhere.

Once such systems are installed, it’s hard to break away and switch to other suppliers. So the new “elbows up” attitude to the U.S. only goes part way.

U.S. firms with offices in Canada are still eligible to bid in B.C. Other provinces are using the same language.

Medtech Canada, an industry trade group, reported that B.C. has set the policy as follows: “Until further notice, any submission, proposal, quote, response, request for participation, questions or bid presented by a U.S. supplier … will be disregarded and not evaluated.

“A U.S. supplier is a supplier legally formed or organized in the U.S. or that is based in the U.S.”

But provincial health-care........

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