Sand Northrup was huddled up at a friend's home in snowy Gibsons, B.C., on Saturday night when they got word the U.S. would follow through with crushing tariffs on Canadian goods. Over a game of cribbage, they hatched plans to personally respond however they could — already sipping beer from a local Sunshine Coast brewery instead of a bottle of California red.

"It was very much like, 'There we go. There it is. Now we've got to engage. What are we going to do?" said Northrup, 67, in a call from E…