I launched a Buy Canadian marketplace in response to US trade tensions. Now traffic is surging.

This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with Valerie Crisp, the 38-year-old founder of Common Goods, an online Canadian marketplace. She is based in Toronto. Her words have been edited for length and clarity.

The Buy Canadian movement certainly ebbs and flows. But right now I’m blown away by the way Canadians have taken this on as a group project.

Last year, when US President Donald Trump implemented his tariff policy, conversations about solidarity and sovereignty in Canada were swelling, and it became apparent to me that this probably wasn’t going to be a temporary conversation.

I’d been working on a pilot project for a product search…