I came across a Canadian poll this week that didn’t surprise me one bit.
Cost of living
That’s still the thing Canadians are worried about most.
In the latest Abacus Data survey, 63% of Canadians named the rising cost of living as one of their three most important issues facing the country.
Not 63% saying it was the single most important issue. That’s an important distinction.
But it still finished comfortably ahead of Donald Trump and his administration at 44%, the economy at 37%, healthcare at 31%, and housing at 27%.
Abacus Data… September 2026 Canadian Public Affairs Update
And right now, there’s a pretty good example of why affordability can be such a miserable thing for any Canadian government to control.
Diesel
You probably don’t think about diesel while you’re standing in the grocery aisle staring at a package of hamburger and wondering when it became a luxury item.
But somebody had to grow the food.
Somebody had to harvest it.
Somebody had to process it.
And somebody probably put it on a truck.
Diesel gets into damn near everything.
Statistics Canada pointed this out months ago. Higher energy costs work their way through transportation, warehousing, wholesale and eventually retail.
In the second quarter, about one-third of transportation and warehousing businesses expected input costs to be an obstacle, and nearly two-thirds of those businesses pointing to input costs specifically identified energy.
Statistics Canada… Fuelling inflation
Now look at what’s happening around the world
Russia has extended restrictions on diesel exports. Middle East refinery disruptions have squeezed supply.
China has restricted fuel exports to protect its domestic market. Global diesel inventories have been running dangerously low.
And the United States… currently one of the countries helping fill that global supply hole… has been considering restricting its own diesel exports in an attempt to bring domestic prices down.
President Trump confirmed on September 30 that an export ban remained under consideration.
Europe wasn’t impressed
The EU warned on October 2 that restricting American diesel exports would be counterproductive and damage trust in the United States as an energy supplier.
Reuters… Trump considers a U.S. diesel export ban
Reuters… EU rejects the prospect of a diesel export ban
Think about that for a minute.
A war thousands of kilometres away damages refining capacity.
Russia restricts exports.
China restricts exports.
Diesel gets scarce.
Prices rise.
Washington considers restricting exports.
Europe starts talking about releasing emergency reserves.
And eventually some Canadian standing in a grocery store wonders why everything costs so bloody much.
That’s the world we live in
Canada’s inflation rate was 3% in August. Food inflation had actually eased to 2.8%, which is worth mentioning because I’m not interested in pretending every grocery price is suddenly exploding.
But gasoline was still 22.8% more expensive than a year earlier, and Statistics Canada’s food-price data showed producer diesel prices up 75% year-over-year in August.
Statistics Canada… Food Price Data Hub
That’s why I’ve become increasingly convinced that we need to think about diversification as something bigger than trade retaliation.
This isn’t about punishing Americans
And it certainly isn’t about pretending we can stop trading with the United States.
They’re our largest customer, our neighbour and part of deeply integrated North American supply chains. Geography hasn’t changed because Donald Trump became president.
But geography isn’t an argument for putting too many eggs in one basket either.
The same lesson applies to energy, trade, manufacturing, defence procurement and critical minerals.
More suppliers.
More customers.
More ports.
More domestic capacity.
More routes to world markets.
Not because America is evil.
Because dependence carries risk.
Canada has spent decades enjoying an extraordinarily convenient economic relationship with the world’s largest economy sitting right beside us.
There were enormous benefits to that.
There was also a vulnerability hiding inside it.
We’re discovering that now.
And here’s another interesting wrinkle.
While Canadians named cost of living as their number-one concern in that Abacus poll, their second most frequently selected concern was Donald Trump and his administration.
Those two issues aren’t identical.
But increasingly, they’re not entirely separate either.
Trade policy affects prices.
Tariffs affect prices.
Wars affect energy prices.
Export restrictions affect prices.
Supply chains affect prices.
The world can arrive at your kitchen table remarkably quickly.
Which brings me back to diversification.
I don’t see it as some grande anti-American crusade.
I see it more like insurance.
You don’t buy fire insurance because you hate your house.
You buy it because betting everything on nothing ever going wrong is a lousy plan.
Canada will continue selling things to Americans
I hope we sell them a hell of a lot.
But if we can sell more to Europe, Asia, Mexico and everywhere else too?
If Canadian businesses have more customers to call when one market suddenly becomes difficult?
If we can process more of our own resources instead of shipping them away and buying the finished products back?
If we can strengthen east-west transportation and energy links inside our own country?
Then the next time somebody thousands of kilometres away decides to close a market, impose a tariff, restrict an export or start a war, maybe Canadians aren’t quite as exposed.
That’s not turning our backs on anybody.
That’s finally remembering we’ve got more than one direction to look.
The Recap…
Canadians were asked for their three biggest national concerns.
Cost of living came first at 63%.
Meanwhile, a global diesel shortage is showing how quickly wars, refinery disruptions and export restrictions can reach Canadian wallets.
Diversification isn’t revenge.
It’s insurance.
The Gut-Punch…
**Canada doesn’t need fewer trading partners.
It needs fewer choke points.**
Source Credit:
Abacus Data, September 2026 Canadian Public Affairs Update; Statistics Canada, Consumer Price Index and Food Price Data Hub; Reuters reporting on global diesel markets, U.S. export restrictions and European emergency fuel discussions.
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Canada would be foolish not to diversify its supply chains and security net. After all what it comes down to is you have to protect your own because if you don’t “you’re on the menu.” Carney understands that as well as most Canadians. Sadly most Americans don’t have a clue and are being served up on the menu to the elites.