Buying Canadian (and not American)

[tomh009]

Given the recent economic attack on Canada by the Trump administration, we now feel even more strongly about trying to buy Canadian products as much as possible--and avoid supporting American products and companies. The company bit is more challenging, as there are many Canadian subsidiaries of US corporations, such as Kellogg's and PepsiCo, for example. So, if the product is made in Canada with (mostly) Canadian ingredients, I'm willing to accept that the corporate profits go to the US.

As most of our day-to-day purchases these days are food and household items, we did some surveying of the fridge and cupboard contents. Happily many things are Canadian, or we can easily find a Canadian supplier to replace them. But not all ...

• I had been under the impression that Silk plant-based milks were Canadian but at least the two varieties in our fridge are both "Product of USA". Will try the Enjoy! oat milk (available at Food Basics) next time.
  
• A lot of vegetables do come from the US, but stores generally do good labeling, and there are many options (not always exactly the same) from Latin America as well. More transport, but at least produced by a friendly country.
  
• I love Pretzel Crisps and we buy them regularly at Costco. No more, however, will switch to Canadian-made tortilla chips instead. Not a direct substitute, I know, but it's really a rather minor sacrifice.
  
• We eat a lot of nuts, and they come from ... California, of course. Need to check at some of the DTK ethnic grocery stores to look for alternatives. Finding a nut (or peanut) butter will be a problem too, I expect.
  
• Raisins and prunes are likely west coast products, too, but maybe sources can be found elsewhere.
  

If you are trying to do the same thing, what are the biggest challenges for you? Or have you found creative solutions for substituting for US products?

[panamaniac]

Given the recent economic attack on Canada by the Trump administration, we now feel even more strongly about trying to buy Canadian products as much as possible--and avoid supporting American products and companies. The company bit is more challenging, as there are many Canadian subsidiaries of US corporations, such as Kellogg's and PepsiCo, for example. So, if the product is made in Canada with (mostly) Canadian ingredients, I'm willing to accept that the corporate profits go to the US.

As most of our day-to-day purchases these days are food and household items, we did some surveying of the fridge and cupboard contents. Happily many things are Canadian, or we can easily find a Canadian supplier to replace them. But not all ...

• I had been under the impression that Silk plant-based milks were Canadian but at least the two varieties in our fridge are both "Product of USA". Will try the Enjoy! oat milk (available at Food Basics) next time.
  
• A lot of vegetables do come from the US, but stores generally do good labeling, and there are many options (not always exactly the same) from Latin America as well. More transport, but at least produced by a friendly country.
  
• I love Pretzel Crisps and we buy them regularly at Costco. No more, however, will switch to Canadian-made tortilla chips instead. Not a direct substitute, I know, but it's really a rather minor sacrifice.
  
• We eat a lot of nuts, and they come from ... California, of course. Need to check at some of the DTK ethnic grocery stores to look for alternatives. Finding a nut (or peanut) butter will be a problem too, I expect.
  
• Raisins and prunes are likely west coast products, too, but maybe sources can be found elsewhere.
  

If you are trying to do the same thing, what are the biggest challenges for you? Or have you found creative solutions for substituting for US products?

You can be sure you're buying Canadian if you can switch to dairy products.  Kraft peanut butter is at least prepared in Canada.  Some of the frozen fruit and much of the frozen veg in the supermarket is Canadian, although it can be hard to be sure.

[tomh009]

Further investigation has led us to conclude that very few nuts (or peanuts) are grown in Canada. So, we'll be checking out a few different nut butters (we already have been eating a blended nut and seed butter): both Nuts to You and Healthy Crunch are made in Canada from Canadian seeds.

Yes, dairy is easy if you prefer milk products. We'll be trying out either Enjoy! or Canada Oat: both are Canadian-made from Canadian oats.

Meat products appear to be somewhat challenging as there is often no country-of-origin labeling. Buying from an actual butcher may make it easier to confirm the provenance of the products. (We don't eat meat so not an issue for us personally.)

Nut and raisin investigation to follow ...

[panamaniac]

I've never tried it, but I think you can make raisins and craisins by drying the fruit out overnight in a very low oven. I think prunes would be too big for this to work well, but I'm not sure.

[ijmorlan]

Now we’re imposing tariffs apparently, so stuff from the US will automatically rise in price.

I have no idea if retaliatory tariffs is a good response. I just hope that we take this as an opportunity to eliminate our internal trade barriers between provinces.

[panamaniac]

Now we’re imposing tariffs apparently, so stuff from the US will automatically rise in price.

I have no idea if retaliatory tariffs is a good response. I just hope that we take this as an opportunity to eliminate our internal trade barriers between provinces.

I woudl say "probably" rather than "automatically".  Producers can reduce prices to try to stay competitive, buyers can sometimes swallow some of the increase, and changes in exchange rates can have an impact as well, although in this case I'd say it's more likely to increase prices.

[bravado]

This is a pretty wild time to be alive and working in manufacturing in Canada...

Either way, we make a surprising amount of food here - most big American food brands don't import, they have factories in Canada for regulatory and supply chain reasons. So you have to decide between buying very common Canadian-made products or buying the much more difficult Canadian-owned products.

As for vehicles, the Honda Civic and CRV, Toyota RAV4, and Lexus RX are made in Waterloo Region and nearby counties. Does that count as buying Canadian?

Now that I'm in pharmaceutical manufacturing these days, that's a real secret giant in this area (alongside nuclear power components). It's kinda crazy what we still make, despite most people assuming manufacturing is dead and dying.

[danbrotherston]

I was kind of surprised by the level of "don't buy American" (admittedly mostly around digital services) that I am seeing here in the Netherlands as well.

It's quite heartening. But also, I think it's fairly hard to take meaningful steps. A number of people I know have cancelled their prime memberships, and there are some local replacements. But OTOH half the websites you visited will be served out of AWS and you can't avoid that.

[Joedelay Highhoe]

This is a pretty wild time to be alive and working in manufacturing in Canada...

Either way, we make a surprising amount of food here - most big American food brands don't import, they have factories in Canada for regulatory and supply chain reasons. So you have to decide between buying very common Canadian-made products or buying the much more difficult Canadian-owned products.

As for vehicles, the Honda Civic and CRV, Toyota RAV4, and Lexus RX are made in Waterloo Region and nearby counties. Does that count as buying Canadian?

Now that I'm in pharmaceutical manufacturing these days, that's a real secret giant in this area (alongside nuclear power components). It's kinda crazy what we still make, despite most people assuming manufacturing is dead and dying.

Manufacturing isn't dead yet, but these tariffs might be the death blow for auto manufacturing in Canada. We export something like $50B of cars to the US every year. The automotive industry employs around 100K people in Ontario. That would be a huge hit to our economy.

[dtkvictim]

Meat products appear to be somewhat challenging as there is often no country-of-origin labeling. Buying from an actual butcher may make it easier to confirm the provenance of the products. (We don't eat meat so not an issue for us personally.)

ForeQuarter is a great butcher for anyone around DTK (I'd go out of my way for them even). I believe all of their meat comes from Ontario farms and they are typically happy to tell you more if you ask. Plus, everything there just tastes better.

[ijmorlan]

Now we’re imposing tariffs apparently, so stuff from the US will automatically rise in price.

I have no idea if retaliatory tariffs is a good response. I just hope that we take this as an opportunity to eliminate our internal trade barriers between provinces.

I woudl say "probably" rather than "automatically".  Producers can reduce prices to try to stay competitive, buyers can sometimes swallow some of the increase, and changes in exchange rates can have an impact as well, although in this case I'd say it's more likely to increase prices.

True enough. I should know not to make a definite economic prediction.

That being said, it should be fairly safe to say that over time prices of things with more American content can be expected to rise more than prices of things with less American content. Buying cheaply will automatically tend to avoid American content, no matter where it is in the supply chain (note the word “tend” is essential to the correctness of the sentence).

[tomh009]

As for vehicles, the Honda Civic and CRV, Toyota RAV4, and Lexus RX are made in Waterloo Region and nearby counties. Does that count as buying Canadian?

More so, yes. But automotive supply chains are super complex and there will be lots of US and Mexican content in any car even if the final assembly is in Canada.

[tomh009]

A 30 day pause before the tariffs kick in. Or maybe they won't, in the end.

But I'm going to continue looking for alternative products as much as I can.

[dtkmelissa]

I found some helpful info in this post (by someone who used to live in Kitchener). https://probablyworthsharing.substack.co...e-american

[dtkmelissa]

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