It feels like 2025 has been a long year – and we’re barely 10 per cent into it.
The frenzied back-and-forth over U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened and currently postponed tariffs has been all-consuming and exhausting – but not surprising. When your largest trading partner by many multiples, who’s been a beacon of (relative) stability for decades, suddenly starts acting like a neurotic narcissist with impulse control issues, it’s hard to think of anything else.
Social media of late, particularly Facebook has been full of messages about the importance of buying Canadian and calls to action on where and what to buy and what to avoid. (We could comment on the irony of people using an American media platform, let alone one owned by Trump’s newest sycophant, to spread that message, but we’ll let that pass for now…)
Nobody can argue with the principle of buying Canadian. Like so many things, it’s something we should be aware of all the time, not just when our economy’s being directly threatened.
But some of the commentary needs addressing. There are levels of buying Canadian.
The purest kind, of course, is buying Canadian-made goods from Canadian companies in local stores. The very top is goods labeled “Product of Canada” – those are goods certified by the Competition Bureau as containing 98 per cent or greater Canadian content – followed by good labeled “Made in Canada”, which must contain at least 51 per cent of Canadian content where the last “substantial transformation” of the product occurred in Canada.
For food items, “Product of Canada” is also the gold standard, with “Made in Canada” the next best, meaning the last substantial transformation occurred in Canada, though some ingredients might come from elsewhere.
If you can buy more of those goods in place of U.S.-made products, our toque is off to you.
But let’s not get puritanical in our new-found consumer patriotism, either. Suggestions to boycott American-based stores like Starbucks, Costco or Wal-Mart because the profits head south of the border, for instance, are likely to do little more than hit local employees directly in the pocketbook.
Neither should we take out our ire on local businesses with U.S.-made products on their shelves. In most cases that’s inventory that can’t be found from Canadian manufacturers, or products that were purchased weeks or months ago.
Punishing local businesses and local employees for the foibles of the current occupant of the White House is cutting off our nose to spite our face.
One of the biggest changes any of us can make that would really make a difference for Canadian businesses, of course, is to put the phone down when it comes to shopping. Get into your local store – it’s a lot easier to read the label and look for the words “Product of Canada” with your own eyes.
Shop local, shop Canadian – and shop in person.
