A teenager from the Greater Toronto Area has created an online resource for those looking to buy more Canadian products.
Tyler Campbell started Madeinca.ca along with his father and uncle early this month, after tariffs on many U.S.-made goods took effect in Canada.
The 17-year-old Uxbridge resident and recent high school graduate said the idea for the website grew out of a discussion the trio had about supporting Canadian business.
“We were discussing politics and the trade war, all that, and we figured that we were interested in buying Canadian but we didn’t really know how,” he said. “We didn’t really have a compiled database of Canadian things.”
WATCH: U.S. Tariffs getting people to buy Canadian
Canadian-made consumer products are in the spotlight as trade tensions have culminated in the U.S. imposing tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.
In addition to matching tariffs on those materials, Canada slapped a 10 per cent surtax on dozens of consumer products originating from the U.S., which took effect on July 1.
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WATCH: What is a trade war? How does it work? And how will it impact Canadian consumers?
They include grocery items like toilet paper and some condiments, as well as household goods like pens, sleeping bags and lawn mowers.
Experts told Global News earlier this month that it’s possible that price increases up to the full 10 per cent could be passed on to consumers at the checkout.
Campbell said reaction to the website has been mostly positive so far, and that he thinks more consumers should consider buying Canadian products, whether their reasons are political or not.
“There’s so much Canadian business that gets ignored and doesn’t get its time in the light,” he said.
The site provides information about goods that are made by Canadian companies and/or manufactured within Canada.
The website now has about 240 listings, Campbell said, or around 1,000 products, spread across more than a dozen categories from furniture to food.
Visitors to the site can help add new products through a submissions form, he said, and the listings are then researched by the team and posted.
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