In response to the US going off the rails, I’m seeing lots of push to buy Canadian products as much as possible and I love it.
But it’s never that simple, is it?
Easiest case: You can buy leather bags and wallets from Adrian Klis. These are made in Canada, by a Canadian company, from Canadian materials (Buffalo hide leather).
Unfortunately, neither manufacturing or ownership are that straightforward most of the time.
- Creemore Springs is a small brewery in Ontario, using local product and brewing locally. AND they’re owned by the Molson Coors Beverage Company - a cross-border multinational.
- Likewise, Canada Goose (winter jackets) is now owned by Bain Capital in the USA.
- A lot of us use Melitta filters in our drip coffee makers. Melitta is a German company that manufactures in the USA. (FYI, Technivorm filters are manufactured and headquarted in The Netherlands.)
- Coca Cola is unabashedly American, and has backed militant extremists in other countries; but the bottle of coke you buy in the store likely came from one of their five bottling plants in Canada, bottled by a Canadian.
- Aylmer’s soups are Canadian through-and-through. Everything other than soup under the Aylmer brand and logo is now owned by Conagra.
- Everyone knows that Costco is American, but they’ve also got a long history of paying above average, giving better than average benefits, and standing up to the excesses of capitalism and fascism.
- Of course, “Canadian” is no guarantee of “good” either for products or for companies. Loblaws has spent decades gouging customers (often illegally) and Shopify’s executives are advocating for a Canadian DOGE.
I’m not suggesting for a second we throw our hands up in the air and give up, but I’d like to see a bit more clarity on all of the “Buy Canadian” lists.
- Country of manufacture.
- Country of components.
- Company headquarters.
- Ultimate company ownership.
None of this is going to be as easy as “buy the thing with a maple leaf” but we need to be more aware of how we’re supporting the US or other economies, either deliberately or inadvertently.
Just buy the most Canadian thing you can find. If it’s made in Canada, it still means part of the supply chain is in Canada and supporting Canadian businesses.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
Absolutely. I just wanted to bring some additional awareness to what makes something “the most Canadian” (or alternatively “the least US”); and that it may be (a) more complex than a ‘yes/no’ checkmark, and (b) possibly different from person to person.
This thing has the Maple leaf. Must mean it’s made in Canada from our famous home grown Canadian Oranges.
Yeah stores have gotten really lazy about what they slap these things on.
It’s not laziness, it’s cynical opportunism.
If the company is Canadian, then they’re paying Canadian taxes. Like, we don’t make rice in Canada but I’ll buy from 555 which is a local importer instead of Uncle Ben. Or for example, I try to buy Canadian soap but if I can’t, I buy French brands.
I buy Canadian first, anything but US second, any effort is good, there’s no way you’re gonna have a 100% local economy anyway…
The whole idea of the movement is to buy more consciously.
If the company is Canadian, then they’re paying Canadian taxes.
Except that big companies don’t pay taxes anyway. 🙃
Yes, tax avoidance is an issue and the bigger the company the bigger the issue. Supporting smaller local businesses as much as you can is the best option.
I thought Spider-Man handled Uncle Ben already
No, but Aunt May did.
You KNOW that the Westons are dumping tons of money into astroturfing this “Canada First” bullshit.
Oh, they are. On my only remaining corporate social media feed (Facebook, because that’s where my mom sees my stuff), I’m constantly getting bombarded with Superstore ads, where some manager is talking about a great Canadian brand they carry.
Fuckers.
They fuck us harder than the Americans, and now we’re lining up for the privilege.
Bots that three months ago were raging against Trudeau like he personally shat on their keyboards are today extolling saccharine praises for everything Canadian. Because perversely that is currently a better angle for creating conflict and disharmony among Western democracies. And boy are we there for it. Everybody loves us again, it’s like the 90s all over. Except Canada is still the same colonialist country, nothing but a bank, a communication company and an oil company stacked in a trenchcoat. Don’t believe the bullshit.
It’s great that you’ve pointed this out and I hope there’s more awareness about it. In practice, it’s not hard: Buy from candian-owned small businesses who manufacture in Canada.
In my not-at-all-humble opinion, most of your examples are all shit you shouldn’t be buying in the first place:
-
We have copious amounts of local craft beer. Never buy the big brands, they’re all swill. If you actually drink craft beer, you’ll know which brands, like Creemore and Millstreet, are fake craft.
-
Nobody should be buying anything from Coca-Cola in the 21st century. We’ve known pop is terrible for your health for like 50 years. They’re a shit company who is the biggest polluter of plastics in the world.
-
Canada Goose is for tools with no taste. By the time any trendy fashion company gets bought out, it’s not cool anymore.
All we have to do as a nation is just put that little extra effort into learning about what we’re buying and making different choices, and it’s actually great that we’re all doing that because we should have been doing it all along.
Well, they were examples. I’m sorry you didn’t like them.
-
After a few months of tariffs, it’s going to be very obvious which products have American components, as their prices rise dramatically next to the unaffected all-Canadian equivalents.
Don’t forget, the majority of our news outlets are owned by Postmedia, which is 66% owned by Chatham Asset Management, which is in turn owned by Anthony Malchiorre. Malchiorre and CAM are well known GOP mouthpieces.
What we do about this…idk…
Yup. And we aren’t going to be 100% and mistakes will be made. The important this is we just keep putting effort into it the boycott will get stronger and stronger as we learn more about where products are made. And really most of the effort is going to be in the beginning, once you’ve figured out what your new preferred brands are, it starts getting easier.
A little tip I find useful… look at the products in your cupboards and take note of which products are US and which are not. It’s a lot more chill to do this at home than in the grocery store. Makes grocery shopping go a little faster when you don’t have to look at the labels of everything while in the store.
And really most of the effort is going to be in the beginning, once you’ve figured out what your new preferred brands are, it starts getting easier.
This is an EXCELLENT point, and I really want to emphasize it as much as possible. We’re changing our habits at the moment, and that’s hard as hell to do. Once we’ve changed them, then maintenance and tweaks are trivial in comparison.
Maybe one approach could be to avoid American wherever possible, but without inconveniencing yourself too much. So for example only buy on Amazon after you’ve tried to find other suppliers first. And yes definitely figure out how American any given product is, check the alternatives and buy the lesser of the available evils.
One question is if there is something needed on Amazon is it the lesser evil to go get it from aliexpress instead cutting out the middleman and going direct from what is most likely from China anyways?
If you’re buying a Chinese product then yes of course.
It’s complicated and there are plenty of gray areas, but you can’t throw the baby out with the bath water either. You can always adjust tack with new information.
I also don’t want to not support American artists. Not people who can basically wipe their ass on money like Beyonce, but indie musicians and visual artists and so on. Art should not be punished by this. Unless they voted for Trump, in which case fuck them.
You can spend hours of your life and a bunch of extra money to make sure you are lining the pockets of the right oligarchs, but you can’t be bothered to stop abusing animals every time you open your wallet.
I’ve had this wallet for 25 years. Should I throw it away because leather is evil?
Also, the point of this post was to get people to make informed judgements for themselves, not to come in and shit all over people for their decisions not meeting your approval.
I did not throw out my leather and wool when I came to understand how abusive (I feel like labeling it “evil” was an attempt to make this position seem hyperbolic) these products were. I cannot afford to replace everything I own, and doing so would not prevent the harm I have already committed. But I certainly stopped buying more leather and wool.
Regardless of what the point of this post was, it incidentally promotes cruelty, violence, and atrocity. Like it ain’t even a big thing. Doesn’t even impinge upon your thought process, right? Yeah, I get it. I get that you would like me to just not call that out. I get that you would like to just pretend that you aren’t cruel and violent, and that it gives you bad feelings when it is brought to your attention. But, see, I WANT you to feel badly about being cruel and violent, about participating in atrocity, because I want you to STOP.
It’s got nothing to do with my approval. Do you strive against child abuse because you are seeking approval, or because you don’t want children to be fucking abused? Would you say, “If you are against child abuse, then don’t beat your children, but don’t try to tell me how to raise mine?” Because that’s what you’re doing right now.
The animals we create are morally entitled to the exact same unconditional love and protection as our own children. Creating life comes with a debt. You do not own these individuals.
This only matters for perfectionists in an all or nothing sense. If you give the USA $0.60 for every $1 you used to it will hurt their economy.
I feel like I didn’t make my point as clearly as I hoped.
It’s absolutely not all or nothing, and it’s not “oh this product is only 93% acceptable so screw it.” I just want people to look beyond a big fat maple leaf on the grocery store shelf and make some personal value decisions on what matters to them more.
My reasoning for buying product x might be different than your reasoning for buying product y, but I hope that we both put some thought into making the best decision for ourselves.
Yeah, I just know people who are very all or nothing. “If I can’t become a perfect vegan, I might as well not try at all and get a meat lovers pizza” when usually even reducing what you do can have a big impact when done by many people.
In a globalized economy it’s really difficult and nearly impossible to buy something completely made in Canada from start to finish.
I don’t think there’s a single tannery left in Canada at this point, so you might get a nice leather jacket made in Canada, but the Hyde was tanned in the U.S. or elsewhere.
I could be wrong. Doesn’t matter though, we as Canadians need to start manufacturing our products back here in this great nation and work with countries that aren’t the US that stand for free trade and democracy.
The U.S. at this point is no longer a partner, friend, or ally. We can do better Canada! We will do better!!
There are a few tanneries left, although not many. It’s a messy, toxic process that is often performed in countries with laxer environmental standards.
But your point is well taken. If a garment maker has to bring in leather (or another material), I’d like to know if it’s from China, USA, India, or the UK before making my decision.
If you do an internet search for “Canadian tanneries” you will find several.
Oh this is good to know. Thanks for the correction!!
I am fine with certain other countries being involved. I will do whatever I can to avoid US anything though
Exactly. I “don’t buy American” rather than “buy Canadian” for the most part. No need to punish our other trading partners. We need to support them too.
I know it’s easier said than done. I also believe in not making perfect the enemy of good. I’d rather have the whole population of Canada doing as much as they can, even if it means still buying certain American products on occasion, than only a few people making a 100% break.
