Buy Canadian! Bye USA!
+ my 5 top Canadian brands of the week!
If you’re Canadian and you’ve walked into a shop or service in the past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed more red maple leaf’s displayed than ever before. There is a giant tidal wave push to encourage consumers to purchase Canadian goods or to properly highlight what is already Canadian on shelves across our nation. A lot of us never really thought about where our goods and services came from, and now that’s all we talk about.
"Are we not buying Doritos anymore because they’re American?", my fifteen year old son asks, annoyed, while we whisk past the chip aisle at our local grocery store. "Yes, they’re made in America and we can’t support them right now". My son loves Doritos. He could polish off an entire bag an hour before dinner and still eat a full plate of spaghetti. He hasn’t had Doritos in weeks and I can tell it’s getting to him.
You’ve probably had to go without as well. I have friends and family members who have cancelled trips to the USA planned for this year. Or, they couldn’t cancel because they were booked so far in advance with commitments, like a child’s hockey tournament. After arriving in the good ol’ US of A, they were met with negativity and even verbal abuse once it was known they were from The Great White North. I’m sure the hockey victory gave it away, or our Hollywood accents! One of my friends had her car keyed while parked over night in Pennsylvania. The American’s are mad and misinformed and we’re hurt and offended but we know that if we don’t change our spending habits, we will hurt more. We depend on the United States to buy products and services from us, at a tune of approximately $421.2 billion a year*, while we purchase only $277 billion* from them. Don’t let that smaller number fool you, we rely heavily on their goods and services. I’ve had to stop buying toothpaste, as most of our options are American. I have found one Canadian option, so far.
We’ve canceled our Amazon, Disney and Spotify accounts as well as other unnecessary American apps and streaming services. I’ve saved about $40 a month, which I will happily re-direct into my community. I have made a conscious decision to continue to use Meta as a tool to reach as many Canadian’s as possible. The app is American, however, but it costs me nothing to use and is one of my favourite tools to communicate online and the American’s can’t stand the irony.
This continuing trade war has one of our major grocery retailers adding a triangular T to item signage that have had tariffs applied. This is a way of communicating to shoppers that they didn’t raise the prices to purposely “price gouge” as they’ve been accused of doing during the pandemic, but instead to simply highlight the difference in price as it is directly associated with the tariff war. Grocery stores have an opportunity to become the good guy in this story, if they make an effort to purchase food from small and medium sized farms and highlight all that they offer that is already Canadian. They could put that billionaire corporate greed reputation to bed.
I’ve been compiling a list of Canadian businesses that I think are worth following, supporting or buying from. It’s a labour of love, learning, reading about inspiring businesses operating right here in Canada. We have a truly talented country.
Pela, sustainable phone cases that are 100% biodegradable and made in Canada. They believe in less waste and empowering a community to do better for our world.
Shop by Grace is a small clothing boutique in Walkerton, Ontario. Their shop is almost entirely made up of Canadian owned brands. You can shop in person and online.
Guests on Earth, make cleaning more enjoyable with this sustainable cleaning brand. Upgrade your cleaning routine with these clean cleaning products made in Canada.
Mimi & August is a Montreal based brand that started making bespoke swim suits before they launched into home decor, jewelry, clothing, accessories and other pretty things. Eco-conscious and sustainable products are available via their website and in their in store locations in Quebec.
Good Leaf Farms, a Canadian grown lettuce and mirco-green company based in Guelph, Ontario. They are pesticide free and their variety of spinach, baby lettuce and micro-greens are available at most grocery store chains across Canada.
When we prioritize Canadian goods and services over American ones we support the economy, which leads to creating new jobs (or people keeping the ones they have) while supporting economic growth at a crucial time in our history.
With All That I Love, (and I love our great nation!)
Grace