Tech developers across Vancouver Island and elsewhere in Canada are building Canadian alternatives to American technology companies as a ‘buy Canadian’ movement resurfaces.
The movement began in 2025 when President Donald Trump first floated the idea of Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state, and it has regained momentum amid stalled trade talks, new tariffs and Mr. Trump’s push to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America.”
Canadian alternatives respond to political and trade tensions
Jessica Glowacki, founder and CEO of Parksville-based social networking platform EH!, said Canadians are looking for domestic options rather than anger alone. “I think we are seeing Canadian’s fairly angry,” she said. “But in the way that we do things, we don’t get angry; we look for alternatives.”
Nanaimo social media influencer Tod Maffin, known for Canadian informational content, posted online that many users have deleted apps such as Google Maps after companies like Google Maps renamed Lake Ontario to “Lake America” for its American users. “Canadians have been slowly detangling ourselves from American technology for the last few months,” Maffin said in the video, adding concerns also relate to how personal data can be shared.
Experts note that data-sharing laws differ between Canada and the United States. “I think Canadian’s are just fed up with those big American tech companies that are folding to essentially tyranny every single day,” Barry Lachapelle, founder of Victoria-based cDox, said. “Much of us have our data in their clouds, and that’s very concerning.”
Lachapelle created cDox, a document creation and sharing platform presented as a Canadian alternative to Google Docs. He said he built the tool to meet the needs of writers he works with on a cycling website: “I didn’t build it out of spite or anything like that, right? I built it out of a need for my team and I and just saw kind of a bigger play for Canadian’s as a whole,” he said.
The list of Canadian alternatives also highlights EH!, which launched in 2025 and allows users to share local groups, community events and news. EH! now boasts more than 35,000 users.
Both EH! and cDox report daily user growth. “I would say in the last week or so with the tariff announcements and everything that’s been happening, we’ve seen a real spike in growth and people wanting to get off U.S.-based platforms,” Glowacki said. “I think right now it’s Canada’s time to build. We’re seeing it across the build and the more we can support each other, the more resilient we will be against some of the bigger guys.”
Maffin has created an online resource called Unplug America that lists Canadian alternatives for popular U.S. companies. Lachapelle said similar moves are occurring in Europe, including France, and predicted “there’s going to be a massive, massive exodus away from American tech into more sovereign tools.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday there is hope a trade deal is still possible so long as the U.S. drops conditions limiting who Canada can sign free trade deals with and abandons what he called unproductive rhetoric. Glowacki said even if a deal is reached, she expects Canadians will continue seeking domestic options: “We are seeing a real come-together moment for Canadians,” she said.
