But there’s one place where it has proven much harder to boycott the U.S.: our investment portfolios.
When the trade war started in early 2025, there were signs Canadian investors were retreating from U.S. stocks. Canadian-listed U.S. equity ETFs attracted $7.8-billion in January, 2025, but then fell to $2.3-billion in February and $2-billion in March, according to Morningstar.
But even as the trade conflict intensified, Canadians added $61-billion in U.S. securities during the first half of 2025, according to Statistics Canada. As recently as June, 2026, U.S. equities remained one of the leading categories for Canadian ETF inflows.
With the trade war escalating again after negotiations collapsed late last week, financial planners say they don’t expect Canadians to suddenly abandon American investments – and nor should they. Unlike swapping California wine for a bottle from Ontario, cutting the United States out of an investment portfolio can have consequences for diversification and, ultimately, for someone’s nest egg.
Ah, Cucknadians. You’re absolved from having to divest of your US stocks because that might impact your nest egg. Meanwhile people who have been fired or who live paycheque to paycheque with no investments can pay the Carney tariffs on staples.“Consumer behaviour and investment behaviour are two different things,” said Simon Wong, certified financial planner and head of financial planning at Blueprint Financial. While Canadians may decide to support domestic businesses with their everyday purchases, “an investment portfolio has a very different job.”
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