Buying Canadian (and not American)

[panamaniac]

Made in Canada terminology is one issue, but what does one do about the vast range of processed foods that give no hint whatsoever as to where they were made?

[tomh009]

Also, Full Circle Foods in DTK is highlighting the many Canadian products they have, as they continue to shift even more in that direction. https://www.instagram.com/p/DFn5FYQSmgC/?hl=en

Full Circle is great!

[ac3r]

Today I bought a yuge 50 pound order of peanuts from North Carolina. (^人<)〜☆

[Rtown]

50 pounds? Wow! Just curious; how much is the shipping on that?
I'm assuming you are having that shipped to somewhere in Canada.

[tomh009]

Today I bought a yuge 50 pound order of peanuts from North Carolina. (^人<)〜☆

Well, bully for you.

We, on the other hand, have by now largely managed to eliminate US products from our food purchases. It takes some work to do that, and some compromises had to be made, but I'm happy to have gone through the exercise.

[ac3r]

50 pounds? Wow! Just curious; how much is the shipping on that?
I'm assuming you are having that shipped to somewhere in Canada.

A lot! They don't ship directly to Canada so I have a friend sending it across the final stretch (for free). They're not special peanuts or anything, I just have an adoration for this particular town they are from, as impoverished and destroyed as it is. I'm happy to help a small business out, even if they're across the border.

Well, bully for you.

We, on the other hand, have by now largely managed to eliminate US products from our food purchases.  It takes some work to do that, and some compromises had to be made, but I'm happy to have gone through the exercise.

It's mostly that I don't believe cutting out US products makes any impact, so to me it's a pointless headache to attempt to achieve. Plus, as someone else said how can we really know where the ingredients in said food come from? It's one thing to switch to Canadian produce or whatever, but it's harder when you're using something prepared. Take something like sliced ham. It may say Made in Canada or Product of Canada, but that doesn't tell you everything. Is the sodium diacetate compounded in Canada? Or the potassium lactate? Is the packaging entirely produced in Canada? How can we know the LDPE was made here, using compounds produced by Canadian plastics manufacturers? What about the sticker on the package? There's really no way to know. And unless you go far enough to figure that out, the decision to boycott things just seems like feel good theatrics because everything is globohomo now.

I would do it if, say, the US brought back segregation or something wild but a buffoon for president sticking silly tariffs on us doesn't matter to me. He's an idiot, his administration is idiotic, let them shoot themselves in the foot for all I care.

I think it's important to use as many Canadian products as possible and limit buying things from anywhere outside our borders. It's terrible for our planet and terrible for Canadian workers. Heck, in recent years I don't even buy that many fresh vegetables now because I don't want to buy stuff that gets shipped thousands of kilometres across the planet (think of the environmental impacts that has...) and have been canning things that I use in colder seasons. Shout out to my Mennonite friends for teaching me the nuances in the summer! Same with meats. It's crazy to me we have beef from New Zealand in our stores here... But at times I still have to use fresh stuff. Or, there are just things we cannot grow here such as tea, citrus fruits, coffee and so on.

Either way, boycotting US goods isn't going to make a dent in things because the scale of money is just ridiculously large. I think a more beneficial thing is to instead just use US products from smaller businesses whom have no links to massive US corporations or large money. There are a lot of small companies out there in both our countries that are certainly worth giving our money to. In cases of products where we can't really escape that with tea and coffee being great examples, at least ensuring it is fairly traded is important.

[bravado]

Food is the easiest one to be honest. Most processed food has been consolidated in big companies over the years, so you really can't avoid them - but even the Nestle's + Pepsi of the world still have to build factories in Canada for supply chain + regulatory reasons. Even buying a bag of Lays chips (made by PepsiCo) still means you're buying something made nearby (in Cambridge to be precise). It just depends on whether or not you want to buy 100% Canadian-owned, or buy Canadian-made. It's quite easy to by Canadian-made if you make only a few small compromises - but sticking to 100% canadian-owned is going to be difficult.

Because of the supply chain in agriculture, you can be certain that a majority of your food ingredients will also be Canadian. Other consumer goods like electronics and cars and pharmaceuticals are so much more difficult to research and find alternatives.

Either way, the relationship with the US is forever tarnished to millions of us. Don't travel there, don't buy their useless digital subscriptions, just move on and really learn to enjoy your actual nearby community more than we all used to.

[KevinL]

If a product contains meat then it will have an inspection stamp (a circle about 1cm in diameter) - if it's the USDA's then the meat is American, if it has CANADA with a crown then it's domestic. I've seen a few other products (frozen pizzas, for example) with European stamps.

[Rainrider22]

I will continue to make my purchases as I always have. As someone who worked in manufacturing for 13 years in my earlier years, I try to buy local products whenever possible. I buy from road side sales often in the summer. It is amazing to me that all of a sudden people are like, I am buying Canadian only now, no US... This should have been your practice all along. And the people that are saying it out loud are just virtual signaling to feel good. I will continue to buy American if it is an item I want/need. I will continue to visit the US. I recognize that the US is our neighbour and we relay heavily on them to ensure our sovereignty whether you like to admit it or not. Trump is just trying to negotiate a deal for military reasons. He recognizes that North America is at risk to Russia and China through the Northwest Passage. He wants to see military bases in the north and ensure we have resources to mitigate the risk from China and Russia. Same reason he is talking about Greenland and the Panama canal... Most Canadians don't think about risk of invasion from foreign countries... but the reality is real.
and to ac3r's point, people avoiding the US isn't going to amount to any difference other than make you feel better about yourself (which is cool) But like anything, human nature will have everyone back to their normal practices within a year...

[MidTowner]

I will continue to make my purchases as I always have.  As someone who worked in manufacturing for 13 years in my earlier years, I try to buy local products whenever possible. I buy from road side sales often in the summer.  It is amazing to me that all of a sudden people are like, I am buying Canadian only now, no US...  This should have been your practice all along.  And the people that are saying it out loud are just virtual signaling to feel good.  I will continue to buy American if it is an item I want/need. I will continue to visit the US.  I recognize that the US is our neighbour and we relay heavily on them to ensure our sovereignty whether you like to admit it or not.  Trump is just trying to negotiate a deal for military reasons.  He recognizes that North America is at risk to Russia and China through the Northwest Passage.  He wants to see military bases in the north and ensure we have resources to mitigate the risk from China and Russia.  Same reason he is talking about Greenland and the Panama canal... Most Canadians don't think about risk of invasion from foreign countries... but the reality is real. 
and to ac3r's point, people avoiding the US isn't going to amount to any difference other than make you feel better about yourself (which is cool) But like anything, human nature will have everyone back to their normal practices within a year...

This last part is incorrect. A single individual vacationing in the U.S., or not, obviously doesn't matter. But it wouldn't take a huge proportion of Canadians to decide not to go to the U.S. to have a significant impact on the tourism industry in a number of markets.


If Florida for instance receives 10% fewer Canadians this March than last, that is a big impact on their economy. Representatives will absolutely hear if tour operators and hotels lay off people because they received fewer guests than they had anticipated and have had to cut prices.

[Rainrider22]

People from Britain not going to Florida would have a much bigger impact than Canadians.

[MidTowner]

That doesn't make a lot of sense. Many more Canadians go to Florida and spend much more money there than do people from Britain.

I'm not saying that the Florida economy would not notice if travel from Britain dropped 10%. But obviously it would have a smaller impact if travel from Canada did.

[danbrotherston]

I will continue to make my purchases as I always have.  As someone who worked in manufacturing for 13 years in my earlier years, I try to buy local products whenever possible. I buy from road side sales often in the summer.  It is amazing to me that all of a sudden people are like, I am buying Canadian only now, no US...  This should have been your practice all along.  And the people that are saying it out loud are just virtual signaling to feel good.  I will continue to buy American if it is an item I want/need. I will continue to visit the US.  I recognize that the US is our neighbour and we relay heavily on them to ensure our sovereignty whether you like to admit it or not.  Trump is just trying to negotiate a deal for military reasons.  He recognizes that North America is at risk to Russia and China through the Northwest Passage.  He wants to see military bases in the north and ensure we have resources to mitigate the risk from China and Russia.  Same reason he is talking about Greenland and the Panama canal... Most Canadians don't think about risk of invasion from foreign countries... but the reality is real. 
and to ac3r's point, people avoiding the US isn't going to amount to any difference other than make you feel better about yourself (which is cool) But like anything, human nature will have everyone back to their normal practices within a year...

This last part is incorrect. A single individual vacationing in the U.S., or not, obviously doesn't matter. But it wouldn't take a huge proportion of Canadians to decide not to go to the U.S. to have a significant impact on the tourism industry in a number of markets.


If Florida for instance receives 10% fewer Canadians this March than last, that is a big impact on their economy. Representatives will absolutely hear if tour operators and hotels lay off people because they received fewer guests than they had anticipated and have had to cut prices.

The rest of it is incorrect too.  If Trumps goals were military based, he wouldn't be antagonizing the US's most reliable economic partner and the worlds strongest military alliance.

Threatening economic war with Canada and threatening actual war with Denmark, and retreating from NATO commitments doesn't strengthen the US's military position, it strengthens Russias and Chinas. If you really believe China and Russia pose a risk to the US and to us, then you should be questioning why Trump is acting as though he is a Russian agent dedicated on weakening the west and promoting a Russian/Chinese agenda.

This is an insane conversation to be having, but it was also insane to discuss whether anthropomorphic climate change is happening, so I guess that's where we are.

As for the effects of boycotts and general American divestment, I'd probably have thought it wouldn't have amounted to anything two months ago, but only because I assumed that the threat would still be theoretical enough that Canadians would be unwilling to do more than say things, and wouldn't be willing to make even the slightest sideways change in their behaviour to live by their words.

I stand humbly and optimistically wrong on that. US border traffic is down significantly, purchasing habits have shifted, there is real anger and that anger is driving real meaningful change. Canada is a major trading partner, we are the US's largest foreign customer base. We do have power in this relationship. If people want to justify their inaction by believing otherwise. So be it. But just like with climate change, you're clinging to a lie to ease your own conscience.

[Rainrider22]

Thank for your words of wisdom Dan, I knew I could count on you to provide me the path of knowledge and telling me my short comings, (lying to myself to ease my conscience). You know nothing about me but here you sit and judge again purporting to have some inside knowledge that I am burdened with guilt) I have read you comments for years on here now, they only take away i have can be summed up in two words, "virtuous" and "righteous" Enjoy your day oh wise one.

[Rainrider22]

That doesn't make a lot of sense. Many more Canadians go to Florida and spend much more money there than do people from Britain.

I'm not saying that the Florida economy would not notice if travel from Britain dropped 10%. But obviously it would have a smaller impact if travel from Canada did.

You would think, but that's wrong.  The amount of people from Britain that own real-estate in Florida is crazy.  Ask any property management company and they will tell you.  The difference is that Canadians typically rent out their property for a shorter duration then stay there themselves.  British people rent their properties almost all year around.