Lake Ontario-Themed Consumer Goods See High Market Demand
After Tareq Hadhad and his family moved to Antigonish, N.S., as Syrian refugees in 2016, they built a business on the premise that chocolate was so uniting it could create peace.
So when U.S. President Donald Trump renamed Lake Ontario to Lake America in late August, the chief executive of Peace by Chocolate felt he couldn’t ignore the antagonism.
Within a day, his company had created the Lake Ontario bar — 92 grams of milk chocolate and maple cream, made partially with Ontario ingredients, packaged in a Canadian flag wrapper and emblazoned with the body of water’s name and information about its Indigenous origins.
“We wanted to be there for our country, no matter how odd that it sounded,” Hadhad said. “If you showed me a Lake Ontario chocolate bar, even a year ago, I would say, why would we even create one because we have so many great lakes all across Canada? But it meant a big deal.”
The treat quickly became one of the company’s five bestselling bars, generating interest from coast to coast and a flurry of emails from south of the border, where Peace by Chocolate has paused sales because of tariffs on exports to the United States.
The reaction has been just as strong at many other Canadian companies selling Lake Ontario products, ranging from candles and caps to cottage decor and more. One month after the body of water entered the president’s crosshairs, businesses say interest in Lake Ontario merchandise remains high.
Teresa Paul, owner of Rockwood, Ont., leather goods company Hides in Hand, said the Lake Ontario coin purses she started making and selling recently are a “pretty hot” commodity.
Customers have been buying them from a store in Erin, Ont., or craft fairs she participates in, often picking up extra for family members.
“People are like, ‘Yep, I want it. Yep, I’ll take two,’” Paul said. “They love them.”
The zippered pouches come in red or blue leather and are embroidered with the outline of Lake Ontario and the body of water’s name. They’re made with Canadian components and embroidered in Ontario.
Paul designed the pouch in no time after Trump’s lake renaming “rubbed me the wrong way,” she said.
“Because I’m a leather designer, my way of responding was to actually make something. I thought why not put Lake Ontario right there on something that we’re making here in Ontario?” she said.
“It’s that little expression of Lake Ontario and Canadian pride. Nothing angry, nothing over political. Just something practical, something that meant home to me.”
Unlike Paul, when the name swap first bubbled up, Province of Canada wasn’t sure it would wade into the moment. There was no shortage of patriotism in the Toronto-based apparel company’s collections — Le Canadien T-shirts, “Made in Canada” sweatshirts and “I was Canadian before it was cool” crop tops.
“But it really became, I think, a movement and we felt that as a Canadian brand who makes their products in Canada, we really did need to become part of the conversation in some way,” said product and operations manager Alli Piccininni.
The company had been selling prints of the Great Lakes for a few years but decided that wasn’t enough.
It designed a grey fleece sweatshirt with “Lake Ontario” in navy and offered it through preorder with 15 per cent of each purchase being sent to Indspire, an Indigenous education charity.
The sweater sold out “really, really quickly,” Piccininni said.
Another round was made and availability has dwindled down to just a few sizes, so the company prepared a third batch shipping in December and fourth featuring a new colourway scheduled to reach buyers before Christmas.
Even as Province of Canada releases other items, the Lake Ontario sweater remains among its most popular releases.
Piccininni couldn’t be happier with that reception.
“When customers get behind us and support us … it’s a really good feeling,” she said.
This article was first reported by The Canadian Press
Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press
