Canada Yells Buy Canadian, eh?

Buy local, has been a carrying cry for quite some time. But “buy Canadian!” has shot up from nowhere to dominate the airwaves and social media, well, Bluesky anyway, as that’s the only one I’m on these days. I pop in to LinkedIn every once in awhile and, at times, Flickr.

I wonder about the sticking power of these “Buy –!” rallying cries.

I’m not sure exactly how many years ago it was when all of Canada was called to “boycott China” over the two Michaels. And, before that, other “buy Canadian!” movements. But, given how people are responding this week, it seems like if they had participated in previous “buy Canadian” movements, they had long since fallen off and returned to their usual buying habits.

Going on a diet never lasts long.
“Buy Canada” is the shopping equivalent.

I’ve been boycotting China-made products since Canadians were exhorted to. It wasn’t only part of standing for Canada against China’s threats, but also because of the tainted dairy and produce news that came out of that country. How could I trust frozen organic produce grown in China was free of contaminants? And have you seen how polluted the air is over there?

I’ve been watching foreign-language shows on Netflix. I’m stunned at how terrible the air is in many of the shooting locations. We, in Canada, are spoiled with our clear blue skies. Even when it’s cloudy, we see water droplets not particles of god-knows-what hovering in the air. Even when Ohio blows its disgusting air north to us, it’s not as obscuring as I see in some Shanghai, Tokyo, any Indian city, or Middle East scenes. Only when the jetstream conspires with western wildfires, have I seen Toronto air as heavily particle-laden and sun-sky-blocking as in Asia and Middle East.

What does all that air pollution do to crops, I wonder? It kills humans. And injures our lungs. So why would plants get away scot-free?

Back to shop Canadian!

Several years ago, before the pandemic, as a way to control my diet, I began to shop for local coffee and chocolate. It’s far, far better for a human body, much more humane to growers, and supports small businesses trying to produce swoon-inducing food by paying people liveable incomes and supporting the environment, through farms that harmonize with Nature, not destroy it. Because these foods are more expensive, I have to eat less.

That was part of the point!

I needed to return to my pre-brain injury levels of eating when I ate because I was hungry and needed sustenance, not because my appetite had gone off the rails or I was stressed or the food was in front of me. So I used money as a control factor with the added bonus of supporting great businesses.

I realize not everyone thinks like me. Heh. I mean, the big box stores wouldn’t exist if everyone bought from shops on their old-time main street.

Just as an aside: many decades ago, I visited cities and towns in the USA. Their streets had chain restaurants, were wide and designed for cars, and didn’t have a whole heck of a lot of local small shops. Old-time main streets seemed to exist only in old movies. Except for New York. A big, noisy version of Toronto with our bustling downtown and main streets of small businesses. Tis true, chains have infected our main streets, but it’s more recent and not as dominant as what I experienced across the border.

In any case, I hope this time “shop local” and “buy Canadian” will transform into becoming people’s usual buying habits.

On a related note, I don’t usually write about the insanity, but I agree with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that our sovereignty is at risk. One person on a Canadian American committee called the revolting prognostications as a “negotiation tactic.”

Threatening to invade another country is not a negotiation tactic. It’s a declaration of war.

It doesn’t matter if the invasion is like Russia with Ukraine or economic through a first salvo of tariffs, it’s still an assault on our soverignty. I’m glad to see Canadians uniting against this threat. It outs the traitors and treasonous into glaring relief when they even hint at siding with the insanity. I hope this resurrection of manifest destiny will bring our stupid interprovincial trade barriers down at last.

I’ve never understood why they exist. Why professions and trades are provincially regulated when geographic borders have nothing to do with competence. Or why we can’t enjoy another province’s goods and foods without paying extra for them or having to sneak across the border to get them.