Ontario businesses are struggling to keep up with demand over ‘Canada is not for sale’ caps.
The impact of Ford’s promotion of its product has been “absolutely overwhelming,” says a local Ontario company responsible for the now-viral hat that Doug Ford wore to a meeting with Canada’s prime minister and premiers to discuss Donald Trump’s tariff threat.
On Wednesday morning, Ford appeared in Ottawa wearing a “Canada is not for sale” hat after Trump pushed the idea of merging with the United States to make Canada the 51st state.
Ford promoted the hat during a short press conference and also shared it on his social media, urging people to order the accessory that symbolizes Canadian pride.
The national merchandise comes from two Ottawa entrepreneurs, Liam Mooney and Emma Cochrane, who run Jackpine Dynamic Branding.
It was launched last week after the pair watched one of Ford’s recent series of interviews with US networks. In one of Ford’s interviews on Fox News, the host pressed the prime minister to approve annexation and said Canada’s integration with the United States would be a “privilege.”
Moore said it sparked a response from him and his partner, who immediately began working with their own brand of design.
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“It’s an honor to be Canadian,” he said in an interview with Global News.
“We really saw it as a small act of patriotism to take on one of the biggest challenges we’ve ever faced.”
Orders started pouring in, and as photos of the hat were shared on social media, staff working in the Prime Minister’s Office reached out to the brand to ask if they could get a hat for the Prime Minister to wear at his high-level meeting on Wednesday.
On Tuesday morning, after they received the call, Moore said he and his partner went above and beyond. Since they sell the hats through an online store, they didn’t have any and had to team up with local Ottawa stores to get some options put together in hours.
“It was made in Ottawa, it was made in Ontario, it was made in Canada yesterday to remove these hats,” he said.
By the end of the day, the hats were ready and delivered to a staff member from the Prime Minister’s Office.
The next morning, Wednesday, Ford promoted the hat earlier in the day. At an afternoon news event, he and several other chief ministers joked about wanting more and requesting different party colours.
The result? An explosion in sales for entrepreneurs in Ottawa.
“It’s absolutely overwhelming. Between interviews, there are literally 30 to 40 emails with new inquiries, new requests and orders,” Moore said. “I’ve had hundreds of requests just a few hours ago – global and international across Canada… No I can keep up with that.”
– With files from The Canadian Press
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