Canadians willing to ditch U.S. travel, alcohol but not streaming services

OTTAWA — A new poll suggests many Canadians are willing to use their spending power to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and attacks on Canadian sovereignty — but not if it means they have to kick their Netflix and Disney+ addictions.

A Leger survey that polled 1,590 Canadians between Feb. 7 and Feb. 10, 2025 suggests an overwhelming majority of Canadians — 81 per cent — have significantly increased how many Canadian-made products they buy, or will do so soon.

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But only 28 per cent of Canadians told the pollster they have or will be cancelling their subscriptions to U.S. streaming services, compared with 34 per cent who say they will not be cancelling them.

About one in three people polled also said they are unwilling to stop making online purchases from U.S.-based companies.

Because the poll was conducted online, it can’t be assigned a margin of error.

More than half of those polled — 56 per cent — told Leger they’re ready to cancel or avoid travel to the U.S. and 59 per cent said they are ditching U.S. alcohol.

Only 14 per cent of Albertans said they would cut off U.S. streaming services — the lowest percentage recorded for any province. Quebec saw the largest percentage of respondents willing to cancel their U.S. streaming subscriptions at 36 per cent.

About one-fifth of Canadians said the question about a U.S. streaming subscription did not apply to them.

William Huggins, an assistant professor of finance and business economics at McMaster University, said many people may be unwilling to give up American streaming services because they don’t see alternatives. He said Canada should expand the availability of non-U.S. programming.

“If there’s a perceived cost or we don’t think that things are equivalent, then we don’t like it,” Huggins said. “There’s a bigger burden.”

Almost two in three respondents over the age of 55 and almost half of those between 18 and 34 years old said they would avoid or cancel travel to the U.S.

At 84 per cent, women were slightly more likely to say that they were boosting purchases of Canadian goods than men at 78 per cent and people aged 55 and over were more likely to endorse a “buy Canadian” approach at 88 per cent than those between the ages of 18 and 34, at 74 per cent.

The polling industry’s professional body, the Canadian Research Insights Council, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.

Liberal and Bloc Québécois respondents appeared to more enthusiastic about cancelling streaming services than NDP or Conservative supporters, with 43 per cent of Bloc voters and 40 per cent of Liberals willing to end them, compared with 23 per cent of NDP backers and 22 per cent of Conservatives.

On shopping Canadian, about nine in 10 people who backed the Bloc, the Liberals or the NDP said they would increase their consumption of Canadian products, compared to about three in four Conservatives.

Andrew Enns, Leger’s executive vice-president for Central Canada, said Canadian companies should make it as easy as possible for consumers to identify their products in the marketplace.

Some companies, such as restaurant chain Boston Pizza, have already updated their websites and issued social media posts to remind consumers of their Canadian background.

The Leger survey also found that anxiety about the economy was influencing people to put off big purchases. More than half of respondents said they had put off major household purchases as a result of the current economic uncertainty. That rose to almost two-thirds of those between 18 and 34 years old.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2025.

Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press