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.
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.