Sault Ste. Marie restaurant's 'border wall pizza' a hit with patriotic customers
The owner of Gino's Fired Up Kitchen says he's sold hundreds of them
A Sault Ste. Marie restaurant says it has sold hundreds of its new "border wall pizzas" to patriotic Canadians angry with the U.S. President over talk of wanting to make Canada the 51st state.
The pizza, available at Gino's Fired Up Kitchen, is divided down the middle with a row of mozzarella sticks and has different toppings on each side.
"Obviously the patriotism and stuff in Canada is shining," said Gino's' owner, Craig Burgess.
"[It's] just, you know, creating something unique from [a] marketing perspective, essentially trying to have a little bit of fun with the … terrible situation that's happening out there right now,"
Canadians have reacted with anger and patriotism in recent weeks to suggestions by U.S. President Donald Trump to turn Canada into a 51st state through economic annexation.
Trump has promised tariffs on imported steel and aluminum starting March 12.
He has also threatened to tariff Canadian energy imports at 10 per cent and all other imports at 25 per cent – though those tariffs are paused while the countries work on a border security deal.
Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., shares a border with Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., and Burgess said people on the Canadian side appear to have joined the nationwide practice of boycotting American businesses as much as possible."The one thing I'm hearing from people up here anyway, is there's a lot of people cancelling their trips, you know, to Florida or to Las Vegas and … different places in the United States," he said.
"I'm hearing people doing an extremely aggressive job and trying to find products that are made in Canada or alternates to the United States and stuff like that."
Most of the products in Burgess' restaurant already come from Canada, so he hasn't needed to do much work to alter his supply chain, he said.
But Burgess also owns Wackys, and the arcade games in the restaurant offer plush toys as prizes, which come from China via the United States. That means they will be subject to the new American 10 per cent tariff on Chinese imports, he said.
"We're trying to get the Canadian contacts so we can get the items more directly," he said.