Mike Moffatt | Ketchup wars: Is French’s nationalism mere rhetoric?

The 2016 “ketchup wars” between French’s and Heinz have sparked a lot of controversy surrounding issues of globalization and industrial job loss. French’s gained the respect of Canadian consumers for its use of tomatoes from the Leamington, Ontario, area, where Heinz closed its plant two years earlier.

In a piece for the Globe and Mail, Assistant Professor Mike Moffatt speculated on whether French’s is truly a national product or whether Canadians just want to believe that as a way of fighting back against outsourcing.

“For the last 10 to 15 years, this region has been hammered by things outside of its control,” said Moffatt. “We just felt helpless.”