Deachman: How to make the ByWard Market actually stand for something (Citizen)
March 25, 2025 - Ottawa Citizen
I was inside the Irving Rivers (“We Corner the Market”) store in the ByWard Market the other day when two customers, independent of one another, came in and bought T-shirts that read “ELBOWS UP,” the latest in political fashionwear.
“Anything we can do to fight those tariffs — those illegal tariffs, I might add — is a great thing,” said Kevin Foran, one of the customers. “To rally the country. The city. The world.”
Listening to Foran, I couldn’t help but think, “Maybe Gerry is on to something.”
Gerry is a friend and former colleague who recently sent me a note suggesting that the ByWard Market, via incentives to young Canadian entrepreneurs with Canadian goods to sell, should become the Ground Zero of the Elbows Up movement, the go-to destination where residents and visitors alike could stock up on all manner of Canadiana.
It’s a brilliant idea. For one, it might help counter some of the recent losses of ByWard retailers. For another, it would give the Market a strong, unique identity. For a third, it would create a geographical centre for our burgeoning patriotism.
It would be popular with both locals and tourists and build on the Market’s position as a go-to destination.
