---
title: "Elbows Up. Then what, Brand Canada?"
description: "Canadian publishers can leverage Buy Canadian sentiment, but they need to build something for when the elbows come down. Last week I went to Elbows Up: How Is Brand Canada Faring? , a Vancouver event..."
url: https://www.boxcarmarketing.com/brand-canada-buy-canadian-books/
date: 2026-10-08
modified: 2026-10-08
author: "Monique Sherrett"
image: https://www.boxcarmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/elbows-up-brand-canada-gpt.jpg
categories: ["Harebrained Ideas", "Marketing Strategy & Tips"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# Elbows Up. Then what, Brand Canada?

**Canadian publishers can leverage Buy Canadian sentiment, but they need to build something for when the elbows come down**

Last week I went to [**Elbows Up: How Is Brand Canada Faring?**](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/iacc-vancouver-event-elbows-up-how-is-brand-canada-faring-tickets-1445368579329), a Vancouver event hosted by the Canadian Chapter of the Insights Association, the professional association for market research and insights.

The panel brought together people working in public opinion, consumer research, tourism, and brand strategy to explore a pretty timely question: **what is happening to Brand Canada, at home and internationally, and what should marketers do with this moment?**

I went looking for what might apply to publishers. And the key takeaway continually reinforced was:

> National pride fluctuates. Trust, provenance, and values last longer.

Thinking about Canadian publishers and their mission statements—they have a lot to work with.

Let’s look at what I learned.

## 1. Buy Canadian is a moment. Use it.

Canadian buying behaviour has moved around considerably since the latest round of U.S.-Canada tensions began.

Ipsos tracked Canadians actively choosing Canadian products rising to **65% in April 2025, then falling to 46% by December**. More recently, renewed tariff tensions pushed interest upward again—but unevenly. In August 2026, **79% of Boomers said they would make more effort to buy Canadian, compared with 49% of Gen Z** (Source: [Ipsos, Elbows Up to Eyes Open](https://www.ipsos.com/en-ca/elbows-eyes-open?utm_source=chatgpt.com)).

That volatility matters.

People with less financial breathing room can’t necessarily make every purchase a statement of national solidarity. Ipsos’ work on what it calls Canada’s **“endurance economy”** also shows price is a major factor in purchasing decisions, even while **people continue looking for accessible moments of joy.**

Books fit rather nicely into that space.

BookNet Canada’s [*Canadian Book Consumer Study 2025*](https://booknetcanada.ca/research/canadian-book-consumer-study-2025/) found that **50% of buyers rated new books excellent value for money and another 37% rated them good value** (BNC, page 25). Canadian buyers are also looking for Canadian content: **38% searched for books by Canadian authors or illustrators in 2025, up from 32% the year before**, while 29% looked for books about Canada or Canadian regions (BNC, page 13).

So there is an opening here.

**“Buy Canadian” can get someone’s attention. The longer-term opportunity is to give them a reason to remember your press.**

### We have a Certified Canadian Publisher badge. Now readers need to know what it means.

Last October, the Association of Canadian Publishers launched its [**Certified Canadian Publisher**](https://publishers.ca/certifiedcanadian/) program to help distinguish Canadian-owned publishers from multinational imprints.

There is a pretty compelling reason for it.

According to [ACP’s August 2026 announcement](https://publishers.ca/certified-canadian-publisher-non-members/), Canadian-owned publishers produced **80% of English-language books by Canadian authors in 2025, but represented just 6% of reported book sales**. The certification identifies publishers that are Canadian-owned and controlled, make their editorial, financial and managerial decisions in Canada, and publish Canadian creators as an ongoing part of their business.

ACP expanded the program this August to eligible Canadian-owned publishers beyond its membership. Participating publishers receive the seal plus promotional assets, including social media graphics, advertising and poster templates, customizable design files, and guidance on incorporating the badge into marketing and communications.

I have not seen this material. But, this is smart infrastructure.

It also bumps up against a familiar publishing problem:

**We launch consumer-facing initiatives inside the industry, tell publishers and retailers about them, and expect that information to somehow reach readers.**

I could find information about the program, eligibility and promotional materials. I couldn’t find public research measuring whether ordinary Canadian book buyers recognize the seal or understand what it signifies.

A badge can’t do much work if the person looking at it doesn’t know why it matters.

This feels like an opportunity for publishers and associations collectively: explain what Canadian ownership means and connect the certification to campaigns readers actually encounter—holiday gift buying, Canadian-authored books, regional campaigns, bookstore promotions and events.

### Publishers already know how to build brands

Nobody is starting from zero.

Publishers explain their identity all the time—to sales reps, retailers, librarians, authors, agents, and funders.

Every press has some version of:

**This is what we publish.
This is why we publish it.
This is who we serve.
This is what makes our list different.**

A bookseller knows what an Arsenal Pulp Press title feels like compared with a Book*hug Press title or a McGill-Queen’s University Press title.

The question is whether a reader does.

Take [**Rocky Mountain Books**](https://rmbooks.com/). Its consumer-facing promise is **“Think Outside.”** Outdoor, adventure and travel publishing is immediately recognizable as its territory.

The Canadian provenance reinforces that. Its website has a prominent **Made in Canada / Shop Canadian** section explaining that featured books are Canadian-authored, published, edited, designed and printed in Canada.

Canadian isn’t the whole proposition. It gives the proposition another layer.

### Medicine Wheel: build from what you already have

**[Medicine Wheel Publishing](https://medicinewheelpublishing.com/)** offers another useful example of what a strong publisher identity can look like.

The day after the IACC panel was September 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and I actively sought out titles from this publisher for my teen. Its mission is rooted in authentic Indigenous storytelling and relationships with Indigenous Knowledge Sharers. It is also Phyllis Webstad’s publisher (Orange Shirt Day). Rather than treating each of Webstad’s books as an isolated product, Medicine Wheel has built [book collections](https://shop.medicinewheelpublishing.com/collections/book-packages) that serve different readers and situations. There is [**Phyllis’s Orange Shirt**](https://shop.medicinewheelpublishing.com/products/phylliss-orange-shirt?pr_prod_strat=similar&pr_rec_id=975862d8c&pr_rec_pid=4617805594756&pr_ref_pid=9387907416315&pr_seq=uniform) is aimed at ages 4–6. There are longer editions about the history and meaning of Orange Shirt Day, French editions, classroom resources and an Orange Shirt Day package combining books, conversation cards and digital learning.

For 2026, Medicine Wheel Publishing also packaged together books and an online course specifically for Orange Shirt Day. And, there is [The Circle of Learning](http://shop.medicinewheelpublishing.com/collections/enter-the-circle-of-learning), an Indigenous-owned initiative that promotes Indigenous voices and art in school programs, libraries, corporations, or individual adult programs.

The lesson isn’t to turn a cultural moment into a marketing hook. It’s that **the press’s [mission](https://medicinewheelpublishing.com/#about), authors, and publishing assets can be organized around the needs of different audiences instead of marketed one title at a time.**

That is brand building too.

[**New Society Publishers**](https://newsociety.com/) does something similar from a completely different position. Its editorial identity is tied to environmental and social change, backed up by concrete publishing practices around recycled paper, carbon neutrality and sustainability.

Different presses. Different values.

That’s exactly the point. They have each worked on their branding and have a highly distinct identity.

## 2. Brand Canada travels

One of the most interesting perspectives at the IACC session came from Isabelle Jacques of Destination Canada.

Canada currently has a very strong international reputation. Destination Canada reports the country ranked [**second in the 2026 RepCore Nations reputation ranking**](https://www.destinationcanada.com/en-ca/media-backgrounder-canadian-tourism-industry) and third in the 2025 Anholt Nation Brands Index.

It describes Canada’s reputation for **stability and openness** as a competitive advantage that creates confidence internationally.

Destination Canada is also thinking beyond visitor numbers. It recently launched a [**Tourism Investment Hub**](https://www.destinationcanada.com/en-ca/news/destination-canada-launches-national-tourism-investment-hub) designed to connect investors with investment-ready Canadian opportunities. Tourism, reputation, and investment are being treated as connected pieces of Canada’s economic story.

At the panel, Jacques made that connection even more directly: **when people feel positively about Canada and choose Canada, that confidence can extend beyond travel into investment.**

I wouldn’t assume the same relationship automatically translates into foreign-rights sales. But I would consider what publishers can borrow from this insight.

International book-fair season is already underway:

- **Frankfurter Buchmesse:** October 7–11, 2026
- **China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair:** November 13–15, 2026
- **Guadalajara International Book Fair:** November 28–December 6, 2026
- **London Book Fair:** March 16–18, 2027
- **Bologna Children’s Book Fair and BolognaBookPlus:** April 5–8, 2027
- **Seoul International Book Fair:** June 16–20, 2027

Frankfurt alone describes itself as a meeting place for rights trading, partnerships and international publishing business; Guadalajara is the largest publishing gathering in the Spanish-language world; Bologna remains the major global children’s-rights marketplace.

Canadian publishers don’t need identical Canadian branding at those fairs.

They do have an opportunity to ask:

> What does being a Canadian publisher add to the story we are telling international buyers?

Maybe it’s openness.
Maybe Indigenous voices.
Maybe scholarship.
Maybe environmental stewardship.
Maybe multilingual publishing.
Maybe regional specificity.
Maybe a strong tradition of publishing voices that can get crowded out in a much larger U.S. marketplace.

Destination Canada is already spending time and money building positive associations around Canada.

Where those associations genuinely fit the list, publishers can use them.

## 3. And then there are the holidays

There is a much more immediate domestic opportunity.

Fourteen percent of the books tracked in BookNet Canada’s 2025 study were bought as gifts, and **55% of those gift purchases were for children and young adults under 18**. Buying a gift was also one of the reasons one in five people gave for visiting a physical bookstore.

That seems like fertile ground for Canadian publishing.

Not simply, *Buy Canadian*.

Think more about bundles and positioning that builds your brand *and* taps into Buy Canadian:

**Five Canadian books for new parents, from Annick Press, home to Robert Munsch and other childhood favourites**
*Stories enjoyed by generations of readers.*

**Give a kid a story from here — Amazing Stories from Lorimer Children’s & Teens**
*Canadian history chosen for curious young readers.*

**Escape the holiday hustle with these pop-culture audiobooks from ECW Press**
*Tune out the festive noise with Canada’s rock gods and wrestling royalty*

**Travel Canada with a scholar**, **proudly curated by McGill-Queen’s University Press**
*Books for intellectual readers who want to know this country more deeply.*

The Canadian connection helps curate the choice. The reader’s desire still closes the sale. What I’m trying to illustrate here is that publishers already know how to create bundles and gift guides. The bigger opportunity is to make those campaigns reinforce the **press**, not just the individual books. A good seasonal campaign should leave the reader knowing what kind of publisher you are and why they might come back to you. Don’t just curate five Canadian mysteries. Curate five mysteries that could only have come from your list.

And this may be another place where provincial publisher associations have more power collectively than individual small presses do alone. A regional or national holiday campaign could help readers discover Canadian-owned publishers while individual presses provide the books, stories and brand personality that make the campaign interesting.

## What I’d do now

### Do now: Make the press visible 

Look at your homepage as if you know nothing about the company. (Better yet, ask someone who actually does not know your company to talk aloud as they navigate your site.)

**After 20 seconds, could a reader answer three questions?**

- What kinds of books do you publish?
- What matters to you?
- Why might a reader want a book from this press?

That’s a more useful test than whether your About page contains a mission statement.

And if you’re a Certified Canadian Publisher, don’t simply put the badge in the footer. Explain what it represents. [Tip: build off the media release](https://publishers.ca/certified-canadian-publisher-non-members/?utm_source=chatgpt.com).

### Build next: Stop outsourcing the reader relationship

There is an old publishing argument that nobody goes to the movies because Warner Bros. made the film. Well, Netflix and Disney have done rather nicely building relationships around the company presenting the content.

If Amazon, Audible, Spotify, Indigo, or the local bookstore owns every part of the relationship with your reader, don’t be surprised when the reader remembers the retailer rather than the publisher. In a world of AI, you have to **build *your* brand.**

Also **build your email list.** Show up at consumer events. Package books around reader needs.

Ask readers what they know about you. **Build your own marketing research insights.**

And measure it.

> One-minute marketing tip: Open Google Search Console → Performance → Search results. Filter the queries for your press name and common variations. Track impressions and clicks over time. It isn’t a complete measure of brand equity. It is a very easy way to see whether more people are actually searching for you.

### Take it abroad: Use Canada as an advantage

Look at your international rights materials and ask whether your Canadian identity adds anything useful to the pitch.

Don’t add a maple leaf because you are going to Frankfurt. Connect the press’s actual mission and provenance to qualities that already have resonance internationally.

## Build something for when the elbows come down

The panelists came back repeatedly to the durability problem.

> Canadian pride is high. Anti-American sentiment can soften. Tariffs change. Governments change. Household budgets change.

The companies that benefit over time will be the ones that can substantiate what they say about themselves—their ownership, supply chain, mission and values. (I recommend this article by David Caron on [“Buying Canadian when it comes to books.”](https://ecwpress.com/blogs/whats-new/buying-canadian-when-it-comes-to-books))

Canadian publishers already have much of that story. They tell it to sales reps. They tell it to retailers. They tell it to authors and funders.

Now tell readers.

**Elbows up, absolutely. But build something for when the elbows come down.**