Ottawa firm gets boost from Doug Ford’s “Canada is not for sale” hat

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The tale of patriotic haberdashery began less than a week ago, when Fox News host Jesse Watters grilled Ford on Canada’s “problem” with America.

“If I were a citizen of another country and I was a neighbour of the United States,” Watters said, “I would consider it a privilege to be taken over by the United States of America. That’s what everybody else in the world wants.”

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When Liam Mooney, founder of Ottawa-based Jackpine Dynamic Branding, heard that, it raised his hackles.

“We thought: It’s actually a privilege to be Canadian,” he told Newstalk 580 CFRA’s The Vassy Kapelos Show on Wednesday. “We jumped up out of our seats — we run a strategic design and branding firm — and we thought: Why don’t we put our skills to work right now and come up with a rebuttal to the MAGA hat and make our own way forward?”

He added: “Within a week it went from concept to on the premier’s head.”

That path included a call Tuesday morning from the deputy chief of staff in the premier’s office. “And they said: We’d like the premier to wear this. Can you get a couple?”

Frantic manufacturing and back-and-forth calls led to the hats being dropped off at about 7 p.m. that night. The next day, Ford was seen sporting the headwear. He was in Ottawa to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the other provincial premiers to discuss Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs on Canadian goods.

Mooney told the radio show that what started off as “a cheeky rebuttal” to Trump’s signature ”Make America Great Again” hat led to some $20,000 in sales in just the two hours prior to his interview.

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The hats are available at strongandfreehat.ca for $45 in both English and French editions, with the French reading: “Le Canada n’est pas à vendre.” There’s also a “premier edition,” which is not a reference to Ford but to the addition of “1867” on one side of the hat. A winterized version (a.k.a. a toque) sells for $40. All styles come in both red and blue.

Meanwhile, over at trumpstore.com, the MAGA baseball hat sells for US$50, equivalent to about $72 Canadian. Also, it’s out of stock.

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