The hats were central to Ford’s Conservatives’ branding during their successful 2025 campaign

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.

Canada is not for sale, but those hats are, and they cost the Ontario PC party more than a quarter of a million dollars during the 2025 election campaign.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford made a patriotic meme of himself when he first donned a “Canada Is Not For Sale” hat in front of the media at a meeting of the premiers and the prime minister in Ottawa last January, shortly before he called the province’s 2025 election campaign.

During the contest, the party leaned into the theme. At many photo ops during the winter campaign, PC politicians wore tuques with the slogan and handed them out like candy.

It tied into the party’s political pitch: voters must “Protect Ontario” by re-electing the PCs to fight U.S. President Donald Trump and his tariffs.

According to newly public election finance filings, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario paid $278,910.71 to the company behind the hats, Jackpine Dynamic Branding, during the campaign period. The party also transferred over 600 tuques, bought for $23.19 each before the election, to the campaign. 

Jackpine co-founder Liam Mooney told The Trillium on Wednesday that this spending was all on “Canada Is Not For Sale” hats, including both tuques and ball caps. 

“We were proud to make the brand,” Mooney said, noting that unions, sports teams and politicians from different stripes adopted it, and that the company decided to use a made-in-Canada supply chain to produce after the hats’ popularity took off.

“It’s brought a lot of Canadians together,” Mooney added. “It’s allowed a lot of Canadians to speak, be very proud of their country and be really defiant in their patriotism in a country that has typically reserved their patriotism for a couple of days on the calendar.”

He also noted that Ford’s political rival, Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, jumped on the hat trend by wearing a pink “Real Leaders Fix Healthcare” ball cap when she launched her campaign.

When the hats first went viral, Mooney spoke about donating proceeds to charity. The company has since donated $10,000 to Wounded Warriors Canada, he said.