By Lisa Queen, Newmarket Era, March 23, 2025
In the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and comments about taking over Canada, Canadian Pam Williams posted a suggestion on the Made in Canada – Canadian Products Facebook page.
Rather than buying popular American Girl dolls, which showcase U.S. history and culture, the Stony Mountain, Manitoba resident urged parents purchasing for their kids and collectors to instead turn to Newmarket’s Maplelea Canadian Girl Dolls.
Williams has been buying American Girl dolls since her granddaughter was about seven years old.
She then started a tradition of purchasing one doll a year to make skating outfits as a raffle donation for a figure skating competition in her community.
“This year, I simply could not, in good conscience, given the political situation with the U.S.A., buy an American Girl doll,” she said in a message to The Newmarket Era and yorkregion.com.
“Because of Trump’s threats on Canada, I refuse to buy American products. I would not have purchased an AG doll. Finding the Maplelea dolls has made it possible for me to continue my traditional donation.”
At this year’s competition, Williams will donate a “proud Canadian” Maplelea doll dressed in a Canada jacket and figure skates.
Maplelea founder and owner, Kathryn Morton, is seeing an upswing in sales to both Canadian and U.S. customers of all ages.
It started about a year ago, perhaps due to the political climate during the American election.
It’s certainly grown as new customers discovered the high quality of Maplelea dolls and their accessories, Morton said.
What began as an uptick in sales last year has grown this year as Trump upped the ante on tariffs and his rhetoric to make Canada the 51st state.
Seven core dolls make up the Maplelea collection.
There’s Alexi, a tech whiz from Toronto, Brianne, a horse- and dance-loving girl from the Prairies and Charlsea, a free spirit from Salt Spring Island in British Columbia.
Leonie, from Quebec, plays hockey and is musical, while Taryn, from Banff enjoys the outdoors and hiking and Saila, from Nunavut, is proud of her Indigenous culture.
Jenna, from the east coast, is into sports and marine biology. Maplelea donates a portion of proceeds of sales from Jenna's Sea Turtle Play Set to the Canadian Sea Turtle Network out of Halifax, which works to preserve leatherback sea turtles.
The company also donates a portion of sales of its orange shirt doll clothing to the non-profit Orange Shirt Society, which works to grow awareness of the individual, family and community intergenerational impacts of residential schools.
Each core doll sells for $125 and comes with a story journal describing the doll’s personality and interests. (There’s also a Maplelea&ME! line of dolls that come with journals, but there are more blanks so people can fill in their own stories and character details).
Extensive work goes into creating the journals for the core seven Girls, Morton said.
Take Saila, for example.
Before creating the doll in 2012, Morton said she did online research, contacted people versed in Indigenous culture and went to a seminar on Indigenous peoples.
Then she took her family – son and daughter, Stuart and Victoria, who were in high school at the time, and her now-deceased husband, Greg — to Nunavut for two weeks over the year-end holidays.
They immersed themselves in the community and took part in nightly holiday activities at the Legion.
Morton interviewed girls and residents about their lives and met with the school curriculum co-ordinator.
Still, when Saila went on the market, Morton held her breath. Had she gotten it right?
A CBC broadcaster from Iqaluit called to interview her about the doll.
“Then he said, ‘There’s one elder up here who heard what you were doing and was pretty upset. He said, ‘It’s just another white man trying to tell our story.’ But the the elder said he actually read your journal and now he’s one of your biggest fans’ … They obviously feel I got it right so I was really pleased,” Morton said.
“It was hard because we wanted to give a positive portrayal but there’s a lot of social ills up there. So, we didn’t want to be all sunshine and rainbows. There are things that are woven into the story that if you know, you know. Like ‘grandma’s teaching me (Saila) how to do crafts. And grandma had to learn how to do crafts when she was an adult because she had to go away to school and she didn’t get to learn when she was a kid. Now, she’s teaching me.’ That’s how you deal with residential schools for a six-year-old.”
Even though Morton is from Kamloops, B.C. and went to summer camp on Salt Spring Island, she and her son spent a week on the island doing research before putting Charlsea on the market.
Telling authentic Canadian stories is important, Morton said.
“The reason I developed (Maplelea) is because Canadian kids have very few toys that reflect our culture, our heritage, our geography. Most of our entertainment and play things come from the United States and it either reflects American culture or it reflects international culture, western culture. But there’s nothing that specifically mentions Canada,” she said.
“In (the journals), it’s very Canadian. We spell colour with a U, we mention the Bluenose, Saskatoon berries … we mention all sorts of Canadian things. It really reflects our culture. We try to pack as much culture, history, tidbits, all that sort of thing in here because I think it’s really important Canadian kids know about their own history and culture."
For most Canadian toymakers, getting their products into the U.S. market is the goal.
“But that often means you have to take all the Canadian-ness out of it,” Morton said.
“But I decided no, I’m going to make it Canadian, it’s going to be Canadian-themed. We’re going to put everything Canadian that we possibly can, and it will be ours.”
That being said, the dolls are made in China, as are American Girl dolls and the vast majority of the world’s toys.
Setting up a factory in Canada to make Maplelea dolls would mean the dolls would cost an exorbitant $2,000 each, Morton said.
She said she chose the Chinese manufacturer, which she declined to name, because the factory is clean, environmentally responsible and adheres to regulations, which she said the company monitors.
There have been no vinyl dolls made in Canada since the mid 1990s, Morton said.
Maplelea is “absolutely” a Canadian company, she said.
In addition to telling Canadian stories, the company’s office and warehouse are in Newmarket and it employs local residents, such as fashion designer Stefanie von Thelen-Newton, a warehouse manager, a social media co-ordinator, an office manager, and additional warehouse and administration staff in the busy holiday season.
Packaging is made in Scarborough.
Maplelea uses local companies for services such as printing and distributing.
A company in the St. Jacob’s area makes the doll-sized Muskoka chairs and toboggans.
So, although the company has many of its products assembled overseas, purchases from this Canadian company ripple through the Canadian economy, benefiting many other Canadian individuals and businesses.
Morton pointed to details on the intricately made clothing such as cuffs and wind flaps on coats — anyone who has survived a Canadian winter knows how important they are.
Details on the clothing and accessories, including buckskin boots, the pioneer Quebecoise outfit, the Ukrainian dance outfit, polar bear and moose slippers, hockey and figure skates and the Lunar New Year dress outfit are impressive.
Maplelea started off making matching pyjama sets for dolls and girls but, thanks to demand, began making pjs for the whole family, including dog bandanas.
While Morton said U.S.-tariffs (as of April 2025) aren’t directly impacting Maplelea – most customers’ purchases are under the $800 benchmark – she said they have caused headaches.
There’s customer confusion as Trump flip-flops on what tariffs apply and there’s now added paperwork needed for custom forms, she said.
Morton is pleased to see the popularity of Maplelea dolls rise as Canadian patriotism grows.
“Canadians are buying more things Canadian and people are promoting us as a Canadian company, which we are. Absolutely, absolutely, Canadians, they’re more proud of their heritage,” she said.
“It’s not just that we’re a Canadian company, but that our products reflect Canada. Canadian culture is built into the design of the products, the story lines, the way things are made, the maple leaf icons we so often use. The Canadian theme of our dolls and accessories has always been a big reason why Canadians choose us. It’s always been that people say, ‘I’d rather support Canadian.’ But now, even more so, definitely.”
