Business

Amazon is selling products calling Canada the 51st state, and many Canadians aren't happy

A petition is urging retail giant Amazon to disable listings of shirts, hats, stickers and other products emblazoned with quotes referring to Canada as the 51st state or otherwise celebrating the idea of Canada being annexed by its southern neighbour.

A petition with more than 57,000 signatures is calling on the company to purge '51st state' listings

Three product listings are visible. One is a t-shirt that says "Make Canada Great Again," the middle one is a sticker showing North America all coloured in with the American flag, including Canada, and the third is a red hat that says "51st Make Canada Great Again."
Many Canadians are furious that Amazon has listings for products that lean into U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to annex Canada. (Amazon.com)

U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to turn Canada into the 51st state have hit the virtual shelves of online retail giant Amazon — and fed-up Canadians are calling for the company to shut it down. 

A petition is urging Amazon to disable listings of shirts, hats, stickers and other products emblazoned with quotes referring to Canada as the 51st state or otherwise celebrating the idea of Canada being annexed by its southern neighbour. 

"This is not a joke to us. It's a threat to our autonomy and identity as Canadians," Ontario resident Sue Williams-Dunn, who started the petition in February, wrote in its description. 

The petition had more than 57,000 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon. 

A quick search of "51st state" on Amazon's website brings up a flood of items, including t-shirts that say "Make Canada Great Again" in a reference to Trump's slogan, stickers of the map of Canada coloured in with the American flag and hats declaring Canada as "the 51st state of America."

"This is offensive and foments dissent and war. I will immediately not buy products from Amazon," one commenter wrote underneath the petition. 

A list of products for sale on Amazon's website, showing three shirts, a hat and a set of stickers. The stickers show a map of Canada filled in with an American flag. One of the shirts has a cartoon of Trump pointing with the words "Make Canada the 51st State". The prices range from just over six dollars to just over 17 dollars.
This screenshot of Amazon shows products for sale on the retail giant's website as of Tuesday. (Amazon.com)

The emergence of products cheering for the U.S. to take over Canada is just the latest front in the ongoing trade war between the two countries, a bitter back-and-forth of tariffs and counter-tariffs that has sparked many Canadians to embrace a "buy Canadian" sentiment.

Amazon said in an email to CBC News that the products in question did not breach their policies. 

The company directed CBC News to its "Offensive Products Policies" page, which states that the company's policies "prohibit the sale of products that promote, incite, or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual, or religious intolerance or promote organizations with such views, as well as listings that graphically portray violence or victims of violence."

According to the company's website, a dedicated team monitors complaints and assess potentially offensive products. 

"We strive to maximize selection for all customers, even if we don't agree with the message or sentiment of all of the products," Amazon's website states. 

Williams-Dunn, a retired registered nurse, told CBC News that she was "so shocked and upset" when she first saw one of the products on Amazon's website. 

"I felt a jolt right through my heart," she wrote in an email. "Amazon says it does not [contravene] their controversial product policy but I beg to differ!"

Brand blowback?

It's not a surprise to Daniel Tsai, an adjunct professor of law and business at the University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University, that Amazon would be selling these kinds of products. 

"Amazon loves money," he told CBC News. 

"I'm not surprised that there's an abundance of controversial and inflammatory type of merchandise because Amazon's whole profit model is based on trying to carry as much merchandise as they can, without regard to the politics of it."

WATCH | What Canadians would say to Trump:

If you were sitting across from Trump, what would you say?

11 days ago
Duration 2:27
The National Envelope went to Saint John this weekend, where U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats are weighing heavily in this election.

It's not all anti-Canadian — the retail giant also currently hosts a number of products that push back against "51st state" rhetoric in its online marketplace, such as hats that say, "Canada is not for sale."

"They're selling on both sides," said David Amos, who teaches retail and marketing courses at the Capilano University School of Business, in B.C. 

Amazon isn't the only site where these products are cropping up: sites like Redbubble and Etsy have similar listings, although products supporting Canada appear to outnumber those celebrating the 51st state rhetoric on these sites. 

A man is shown from the shoulders up wearing a suit and a blue hat that says "Canada is not for sale."
Products similar to the 'Canada is Not For Sale' hat worn by Ontario Premier Doug Ford in Ottawa in mid-January are also available on Amazon's website amid the trade war. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

Walmart's online site also hosted several listings for baseball hats declaring Canada the 51st state. But after CBC News reached out for comment, those listings were taken down. 

"Like many retailers, we operate an online marketplace in the U.S. that allows independent sellers to list their items through our eCommerce platform. These items were listed by third-party sellers and removed from our site because they violate our policy," the company said in a statement Thursday. 

The fact that Amazon is permitting the sale of products calling for Canada's annexation could damage its brand image among Canadians, Tsai said — particularly in light of recent accusations that Amazon is engaging in union-busting by ordering the closure of seven warehouses in Quebec, including Canada's first unionized Amazon facility. 

"This reveals Amazon's true colours as a big American company that just doesn't care about Canadians," he said. 

But while this could sour some Canadians on the company, for customers who have long relied on Amazon, "it's hard to find a substitute," for the retail juggernaut, Amos told CBC News. 

"I don't really see it making that much of a dent."

Impacts of public outcry

Williams-Dunn said her goal is for the petition to reach one million signatures — she's hoping that might spur Amazon into action. 

Although it's rare, Amazon has pulled listings due to public backlash before. A number of neo-Nazi and white supremacist products were removed from the site in 2018 and 2020 after criticism from advocacy groups and lawmakers.  

WATCH | It's not just Canadians who are refusing to buy American goods:

People in Ottawa and around the world are boycotting U.S. goods

15 days ago
Duration 2:24
The “Buy Canadian” movement is alive and well in the city. But it’s not just Canadians who are refusing to purchase American goods or visit the country. Movements in Europe have cropped up as well.

But Tsai said it's money that really talks. 

"It's not entirely impossible to force Amazon to remove merchandise, but it normally is extremely difficult to do so," he said. 

"The only way that this petition would be successful is if they actually see that sales go down and that hurts their bottom line. And unless Amazon sees a financial hit, they don't have much of an incentive to do anything about it."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alexandra Mae Jones is a senior writer for CBC News based in Toronto. She has written on a variety of topics, from health to pop culture to breaking news, and previously reported for CTV News and the Toronto Star. She joined CBC in 2024. You can reach her at alexandra.mae.jones@cbc.ca

Add some “good” to your morning and evening.

Your weekly look at what’s happening in the worlds of economics, business and finance. Senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong untangles what it means for you, in your inbox Monday mornings.

...

The next issue of the Mind your Business will soon be in your inbox.

Discover all CBC newsletters in the Subscription Centre.opens new window

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Google Terms of Service apply.