Why is Donald Trump targetting hockey sticks in new tariff threat?
Posted July 23, 2026 7:16 pm.
When U.S. President Donald Trump announced a new round of 50 per cent tariffs on a laundry list of Canadian items, the inclusion of hockey sticks made headlines.
The tariffs, if implemented, would go into effect on August 19.
While hockey sticks may conjure nostalgic images of Canadiana, Canada actually makes very few hockey sticks and exports even fewer to the U.S.
Dan McTaggart’s company Taggs Hockey is an exception.
McTaggart runs the company with his wife out of their home in Guelph and any new tariffs would impact their business significantly.
McTaggart sells about 1,000 sticks a year, and says his U.S. sales are booming — accounting for up to a fifth of his total business.
“If you were to order a new stick today and then a new tariff is imposed … while the stick is being built, that price that you paid two months ago could be inflated significantly by the time it actually crosses the border and gets to an American customer,” he explained. “They are extremely upset when they get a massive bill and I’m obviously upset.”
The latest tariff threat has him considering halting sales to U.S. customers, something he’s done in the past during Trump’s tariff-obsessed tenure.
McTaggart’s business, and Canada as a whole, represents a small fraction of the hockey stick market dominated by China.
So why did President Trump target Canadian sticks in the first place?
Mark Manger, professor UofT’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy thinks it’s personal.
President Trump is “making this about something that’s entirely symbolic but really emotional,” he opined.
“I think this falls in the category of needling more than a serious trade measure, there’s no major export … of hockey sticks from Canada to the U.S. So it’s not a way to squeeze us economically at all.”
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) also believe it’s the president’s way of getting a reaction.
“What worries me about this, is this is one of the first major incursions into the guts of the CUSMA agreement,” said Dan Kelly, President of the CFIB.
“It would affect a whole bunch of small and medium sized business that to this point have not had export tariffs added to their list of worries.”
