Here are the barriers Canadians face in buying local this holiday season: Nanos survey

Kamil Karamali breaks down a new Nanos poll which finds costs are a barrier for Canadians who want to buy products made in this country.

While the “Buy Canadian” movement in response to U.S. tariffs is still in full swing, the price and availability of Canadian-made goods is preventing some shoppers from buying local for the holidays, according to a recent Nanos survey conducted for CTV News.

Forty-five per cent of respondents surveyed said that “cost” was a potential barrier in buying Canadian goods for the holidays, while 33 per cent of people surveyed said “availability” was a deterrent.

One-third of people surveyed said “transparency” was an issue in trying to buy Canadian-made goods this holiday season because they weren’t able to tell where a product was made.

Not everyone surveyed said they experienced barriers in buying Canadian, with 31 per cent saying they don’t see any potential hurdles in buying locally made gifts for their loved ones.

“For a lot of young people who are worried about paying for the groceries, they probably like the idea of buying Canadian and want to send that message to the United States, but that it’s just not feasible from a financial perspective,” said data scientist Nik Nanos in an interview with CTV News Channel Friday.”

“When you look at the country at large, B.C. tends to be a little less cost-focused – but once you get out of B.C., factoring in the margin of error numbers, fairly consistent numbers from the Prairies all the way out east to Atlantic Canada."

Younger Canadians

The survey also found the demographic that experienced cost as the largest barrier to buying Canadian goods for Christmas was those under the age of 35.

Nearly 60 per cent of respondents between 18 and 34 years of age said the price of locally made gifts would mean they would likely shop outside of the country this holiday season.

This is compared to nearly 53 per cent of respondents 35-54 and 30 per cent of those over the age of 55.

Brendon Bernard, senior economist at Indeed.com, says the job market has been especially difficult this past year for Canadians under 25, making it tougher to afford to spend more for locally made goods.

“When we look at the weekly earnings of young people, especially people under age 25, they’re just substantially less than people over 25. ... Among the younger group, it’s 41 per cent of the earnings of those 25 to 54, so just a huge income gap,” said Bernard, adding high interest rates, inflation, population growth and the unpredictability of the U.S. trade war has made some companies skittish in creating more entry-level positions.

“It’s been tougher,” said Bernard. “We’ve also seen the job market for youth deteriorate more than others over the past few years, partly reflecting how this cyclical labour market shift has evolved over the past few years.”

The youth unemployment rate dropped to 12.8 per cent in November after experiencing a summer that saw it hit 17.9 per cent, the highest since 2009, according to Statistics Canada.

Methodology

Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (land- and cell-lines) hybrid telephone and online random survey of 1,009 Canadians, 18 years of age or older, between Nov. 29 and Dec. 2, 2025, as part of an omnibus survey. Participants were randomly recruited by telephone using live agents and administered a survey online. The sample included both land- and cell-lines across Canada. The results were statistically checked and weighted by age and gender using the latest census information and the sample is geographically stratified to be representative of Canada. Individuals randomly called using random digit dialing with a maximum of five call backs. The margin of error for this survey is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. This study was commissioned by CTV News and the research was conducted by Nanos Research.