On February 2nd, 2025, the 47th President of the United States announced an unjustifiable trade war against its closest allies and trading partners. This isn't the first time time, with the President having previously imposed tariffs in his term as the 45th President.

Since we can no longer rely on the United States to act reasonably, to honour its trade deals, or to act in good faith, it's time to start permanently reducing American goods and services from our lives. Already hundreds of billions in counter tariffs both federally and provincially have been announced, numerous provinces have announced plans to divest from American companies, and large scale grassroots movements have begun to boycott American goods and services.

The below are personal notes & progress - they're not meant to be comprehensive or all-encompassing, but the progressive journey our family is taking to reduce our dependence on American goods and services.

Services

Not all services have comparable replacements outside the United States, so where necessary, we'll choose the lesser of two evils until a better option becomes available.

Thankfully, we're a tech-savvy family, so we have no issue self-hosting services when it's the best option.

Goods

We are lucky to live in a dense city (Montreal) with a wide variety of local alternatives, which is not an option for many Canadians that live in rural areas. For the last few years almost everything we buy is already made in Quebec or Canada, but there were a few exceptions.

Most of our produce comes from the Quebec chain Avril which already sources mostly non-American goods, and we get year-round produce from Lufa, which grows in 6 massive greenhouses in Montreal.

To be continued...