Continue The Campaign To “Buy Canadian”
In 2020, Trump advisor and son–in-law Jared Kushner publicly stated that it was the US administration’s deliberate strategy to create an agreement with Canada that weaponized uncertainty, so that the U.S. can come back in six years to exact more concessions. Today, President Trump’s trade war with Canada continues on script, and I hope we are not settling for a diminished standard of living while losing our place in the world.
Why buy Canadian? Let’s evaluate the present moment. Ontario’s unemployment rate sits at 7.6 %.( It was recorded at 5.2% in January 2020). Nearly one in seven young Canadians can’t find work. Our manufacturing sector has lost over 52,000 jobs since the tariff war began. Steel workers, auto assemblers, forestry communities, and farmers are absorbing a hit that was imposed on them – not earned. This is not a reason to despair. It’s the reason to act. How should Canadians act? When you choose Canadian steel, Canadian lumber, Canadian food, and Canadian services, you are not waving a flag. You are keeping a wage in a London household where the unemployment rate is 9.1%. You are keeping a shift running in a Hamilton mill where the rate is 7.2%. You are keeping a young person in their first job instead of their first unemployment line. We need a persistent and principled approach to Canadian economic nationalism.
Here’s what “Buy Canadian” actually does:
- It keeps demand, jobs, and margins inside our borders when export channels are under siege.
- It reduces our dependence on U.S. inputs in sectors we cannot afford to hollow out
- It signals to every foreign policymaker watching that Canada can redirect its economy and will
- It turns consumer and procurement decisions into genuine negotiating leverage with President Donald Trump
- It sustains the forestry towns, auto hubs, and farming communities that built this country
We have weathered harder moments than this to be sure. We are not a branch plant. We are not a client state. We are an innovative, resource-rich, highly skilled economy of 40 million people who have every reason to support one another from a bully.
So to every procurement leader, business owner, and supply chain manager reading this: ask your suppliers where their goods are made. Ask them to source Canadian where they can. Ask them to stand with Canadian workers because we need to support our Canadian workers now. We need to remain independent, we need to help the less fortunate. Let’s not settle for less- let us demand more from ourselves.
Buy Canadian – Invest Canadian – Be Canadian
Northern Cables Inc. Leclerc Foods Canarm Ltd. Burnbrae Farms Russel Metals Ian McFall Jean-Sebastien Leclerc CANCOIL Todd Stafford
