The digital billboards began popping up recently on busy thoroughfares in Pittsburgh and more than a dozen other American cities and towns. The simple white letters on a stark black background carried a pointed message.
Tariffs are a tax on groceries.
Tariffs are a tax at the gas pump.
Tariffs are a tax on hardworking Americans.
The billboards aren’t paid for by an industry trade group or a political action committee, but rather by the sovereign (for now) government of Canada, a point that is noted in the not-so-fine print.
The advertising campaign is another sign of how the neighbors to the north are responding to President Trump’s provocations, be it his tariff threats or his musings about annexing their country as the 51st state. The Canadians are coming in elbows up and sticks high, to borrow from the true common language between Canadians and Pittsburghers — hockey.
“It’s interesting to see Canada, which to the average American has been a passive partner, take this tough guy stance,” said Nick Canada, a doctoral student in rhetoric at the University of Pittsburgh who, alas, grew up in northern Florida. “The billboards are almost militaristic in style, like you’d see on a bumper sticker. They’re piercing this veil of ignorance of the world stage and condensing this huge problem into a very tangible, understandable phrase.”
Canada was spared when President Trump announced wide-ranging tariffs on 70 countries on Wednesday, though Washington’s protectionist push is still hitting pockets of the Canadian economy.
A new 25 percent tariff that went into effect on Thursday on car and car parts exported to the United States partially exempted cars made in Canada and Mexico that meet the terms of free trade agreements with those countries.
Troy Loney, a Canadian who became a U.S. citizen after playing on two championship teams for the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team, said for now the backlash in his native country has more to do with the Trump administration’s takeover talks than the tariffs the president has imposed on allies and foes alike.
“Canadians have always deemed themselves very patriotic,” Mr. Loney, a software businessman said. “To say, ‘Hey, little brother, we’ll take you in and do it our way’ — that has the majority of Canadians riled up.”
The ad campaign, which focuses on 12 states, is an attempt to reach Americans who are likely to be affected by increased prices for Canadian steel, oil, whiskey, and other goods and services that have been hit with reciprocal tariffs. It encourages Americans to think of tariffs as something more familiar and deeply unpopular — a tax.
A government spokesman called it “an educational campaign.”
While Pittsburgh isn’t as close to the border as Buffalo or Detroit, there is a sizable industrial link. There are 75 Canadian-owned businesses operating in Allegheny County, according to Canada’s consulate in Pennsylvania. The state imported $14.2 billion in products from Canada last year, according U.S. Census Bureau data.
Steve Buffington is an aficionado of curling, a sport that is a touchstone of Canadian culture and has a small band of devotees in Pittsburgh. Mr. Buffington, the president of the Pittsburgh Curling Club, said he’s expecting higher prices in June when he orders new curling stones and blades for a nipper, a machine that manually gets the ice match ready.
“But until we order anything, it’s an unknown,” said Mr. Buffington, whose rink in McKees Rocks has American and Canadian flags hanging side by side.
Western Pennsylvania is accustomed to being a target for political persuasion. Both presidential campaigns were so convinced that last November’s election might turn on this corner of America that Mr. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris held rallies within a few turns of the Monongahela River from each other on the eve of the election.
It is also a place where some in Republican strongholds, like Butler County, whose top employer is the federal government, are experiencing misgivings as Mr. Trump presses ahead with efforts to slash the federal work force.
The billboards are an attempt to reach those supporters.
“It’s a little poking you with a stick,” Mr. Canada said of the billboards. “‘They really sold this to you and you bought it, so here’s a little reminder of what’s coming.’ It’s a good reading of the suburbs.”
If the effects of the tariffs are not yet being felt fully — or even at all — the billboards are part of the Canadian government’s two-pronged campaign after attempts to appease the Trump administration by beefing up border security proved fruitless.
The other has been to kick start a “Buy Canadian” campaign that has thus far resulted in snowbirds canceling vacation plans to the American South, exporters struggling to find distributors in Canada and full-throated booing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at hockey games.
It also led to a cheeky video in which the new Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, an economist by training, grills the Canadian actor Mike Myers on his Maple Leaf bona fides, making sure that he’s a real Canadian after many years living in the United States.
The setting for their conversation: an ice rink.
The most prominent Canadian exports to Pittsburgh are, of course, hockey players.
Mario Lemieux, who led the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups in the early 1990s, funds local cancer research after his own recovery from the disease and is revered for keeping the Penguins in town after buying them out of bankruptcy. (Another Canadian, Jim Balsillie, the founder of BlackBerry, had attempted to purchase the team and move it to Hamilton, Ontario.)
Then there is another local demigod: Sidney Crosby, who has helped the Penguins to three more Cups. He is also worshiped in Canada for his skill, mettle and scoring of the gold medal-winning overtime goal in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
After he scored the only goal in a 1-0 overtime victory here last Sunday over the visiting Ottawa Senators, Mr. Crosby said he had not seen the billboards.
“I must be living under a rock,” he said with a smile.
But the tensions over the tariffs were impossible to miss in February during the 4 Nations Face-Off, a tournament featuring Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden that carried an extra edge when fans in Montreal and Boston booed the visitors’ national anthem in the two games that Canada and the United States played against each other.
“It was a little tense,” said Mr. Crosby, who captained Canada in the tournament but has not played in his native country with the Penguins since then. “It was one of those things where both teams were saying we’d rather not hear the boos during the anthem.”
There was no booing of “Oh, Canada” last Sunday night.
There were not many Ottawa fans, either. While the Senators don’t have the rabid following of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Montreal Canadiens or the Edmonton Oilers, they are fighting to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
“Tariff talk has made it easier to stay home,” said John LeHocki, an Ottawa fan who made the four-hour trip from Welland, Ontario, where he works at a bank. Mr. LeHocki said he saw the impact of the tariffs at the border: There was only one car ahead of him in what is typically at least a 30-minute wait.
Jay Churchwell, of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, cut short a recent business trip to the Lehigh Valley so he wouldn’t spend an additional night in the United States. But he was dubious that Americans would be swayed by the tariff billboards.
“Is a foreign government talking to you about tariffs going to help?” said Mr. Churchwell, who had booked his trip to Pittsburgh with friends last year. “I think there’s a better use of funds.”
Judy O’Brien, wearing a Grateful Dead-themed Penguins shirt, did not require convincing from billboards. Ms. O’Brien, who said she can recite the words to “Oh, Canada,” didn’t think the United States should be picking a fight with its neighbor.
“Normally, Canadian fans come down on buses,” she said. “I hope they know we like to have them here. They sure are nicer than Philadelphia fans.”
