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.

  • SwordgeekOP
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    22 hours ago

    If the company is Canadian, then they’re paying Canadian taxes.

    Except that big companies don’t pay taxes anyway. 🙃

    • UnderFreyja
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      21 hours ago

      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.