Canada Day: Reflections from a Small Shop on Shifting Ground

There’s a moment each year, when the days are as long was they are going to get and the sunlight overwhelms the windows of the shop. The street has replaced its car traffic with restaurant tables: Canada Day is around the corner.

For many, July 1st is a day off. A barbecue. Fireworks. But for those of us who run shops like ours — independent, quiet, analogue spaces nestled in a very digital world—it’s also a day of reflection. This is our chance to take stock of where we are and what it means to be doing business in canada fountain pen, for Canadians, as Canadians.

This year, Canada Day feels different. And not just because the headlines are combative or because our collective relationship to patriotism is more complex than it once was—though both are true. It feels different because the ground beneath our small business continues to shift. Some changes are hopeful, even exciting. Others leave you feeling all at sea.

Let’s begin with the bright side.

Discovering New Canadian Companies to Support

One of the unexpected joys of the past year has been discovering a number of remarkable Canadian companies—especially in the world of paper goods and cards. Where once we might have defaulted to international vendors, we’re now turning more deliberately to designers and makers closer to home. It’s been like stumbling across a neighbour you didn’t know you had, and realizing you speak the same creative language.

Many of these businesses are small—sometimes just a single person working from a makeshift studio or converted garage—but the work is thoughtful, well-crafted, and distinctly Canadian. Not in the maple-syrup-and-moose kind of way, but in the sense of quiet precision, intelligent humour, and a deeper understanding of where we live and how we communicate.

We’ve been fortunate to bring in greeting cards from new Canadian lines that reflect everything from dry wit to tender sentiment. For our customers, these cards strike a different chord—they feel more personal, more relevant, more connected. And for us, stocking Canadian-made cards helps reinforce the values we quietly hold dear: curation, community, and a sense of place.

If you’ve bought a card from us this past spring, chances are good it was printed not thousands of kilometres away, but in a Canadian studio run by people as passionate about quality as we are. And that, to me, feels worth celebrating.

The Harder Conversations with Long-Time Partners

But change is rarely tidy, and this shift hasn’t been without its complications.

Over the past year, we’ve found ourselves having some difficult conversations with long-standing business partners. These are companies we’ve worked with for decades—trusted names in the industry, many of them large international corporations, and many of them friends. But the realities of doing business have changed. Exchange rates fluctuate wildly. Shipping is more expensive and less reliable. Margins are tighter. Expectations are higher. And the human tolerance for unpredictability—understandably—is lower than it used to be.

We’ve had to make harder decisions more frequently. Sometimes that means ordering less. Sometimes it means walking away from relationships that no longer make sense for us—or where we no longer feel seen or supported.

That’s never easy. There’s history in those relationships. Loyalty. Shared memories of trade shows and late-night dinners and the thrill of brand new product in unpacked boxes. Letting go, or even pushing pause, feels like saying goodbye to a version of the business we once were.

But I also believe in being pragmatic. Nostalgia makes for lovely reading, but it doesn’t pay the bills. Our job has always been to curate the best possible selection of writing instruments, stationery store, and analogue tools for our customers.  Sometimes that means closing a chapter so a better one can begin.

The Evolving Meaning of “Canada” in Canada Day

So what does all this have to do with Canada Day?

For me, it comes down to this: the meaning of Canada Day is no longer fixed. It’s not simply about celebration, though I think there’s still much to celebrate. It’s about reckoning with complexity. About choosing, thoughtfully and consciously, how we want to show up in this place we call home.

At Laywine’s, that means looking inward and outward at once. Supporting Canadian makers not as a checkbox, but as an act of alignment. Asking questions about where our products come from, who benefits, and about their backstory is as compelling as the items itselves. Being transparent when things don’t go to plan. And perhaps most of all, continuing to build a space where customers feel the quiet joy of quality, of care, and of connection.

Canada, after all, is not just geography: it’s about relationships, flexibility and resilience. It’s the ability to reimagine.

A Small Shop’s Role in a Big Country

We are a small shop. Always have been. We’re not out to conquer markets or flood inboxes or open franchises. What we offer is quieter. Slower. Sometimes a little eccentric. But in a world increasingly built for speed and scale, I’d argue that makes us more necessary than ever.

If you’re visiting us on-line this Canada Day, I hope you’ll feel what we’ve tried to build: a space that respects tradition while welcoming change, that prizes craftsmanship, and that is quietly proud to be Canadian.

The shop will be closed on July 1st, as is our wont on statutory holidays. We’ll take the day to breathe, maybe write something, or read something longer than a laundry list. And we’ll come back July 2nd ready to do what we’ve always done: open the doors, turn the lights on, and offer you something worth holding on to.

Happy Canada Day, in all its complexity.

~Peter