"The Trudeau effect" has been a boon for Canadian tourism, trust in business and our country's image in general, and apparently Canadian brands are benefiting too.
A survey from Statista, an online statistics database, conducted between December and January found that products made in Canada saw the biggest boost in global perception of a long list of countries over the previous 12 months, a net 45 per cent.
Survey respondents were asked how their view of a country’s brand had shifted, but they weren’t asked why.
But Nicolas Loose, Statista’s head of market research, told The Huffington Post Canada he can’t think of anything else that could be behind the shift other than Justin Trudeau’s election in 2015.
“What I have seen about Canada has mostly been the very charismatic prime minister," he said.
Survey participants were also asked their opinion of products made in certain countries.
Canada was in the top 10, below Germany, Switzerland, the European Union, United Kingdom and Sweden.
But while nations like Switzerland have luxury brands that boost their image, Loose, who lives in Germany, said he thinks Canada has a lack of well-known consumer brands.
"Canada has an equally strong reputation in the whole world."
He couldn’t come up with many besides Canada Goose and Bombardier, which he acknowledged probably isn't too familiar to global consumers.
Canadians were also the only ones to rank their homegrown products number one.
But Canada is still perceived well overall, he said.
"Most countries have a very specific regional influence," he said.
"Canada has an equally strong reputation in the whole world, which is not the case for most other countries we looked at."
More than 43,000 people from 52 countries were surveyed by Dalia Research on behalf of Statista for the study.
This is the first year of Statista’s "Made-In-Country Index," so there’s no way to compare this year’s numbers to previous results.
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When Trudeau Met Trump
But while there may be a lack of big names associated with Canada, respondents associated the products with sustainability and fair production, more so than any other country in the survey.
The 10 countries at the bottom of Statista’s list saw the smallest increase in their brands’ value, nations like Russia, Iran, the U.S., Bangladesh and Mexico. All have seen some political tension or instability, said Loose.
"It seems like current political events seem to have a very strong influence on the country perception in the past 12 months,” he said.
So while Loose can’t point to a definitive reason why the U.S. ended up near the bottom, he said he can’t think of anything else besides Donald Trump's arrival in the White House.
It shows up between Greece and Mexico on the list, a very poor showing for a superpower, he said.
So while Canadians may be loyal to the made-in-Canada label, maybe brands that wear it should advertise the fact abroad, too.
And maybe American brands should hold off.