Canada

Don't forget, the majority of our news outlets are owned by Postmedia, which is 66% owned by Chatham Asset Management, which is in turn owned by Anthony Malchiorre. Malchiorre and CAM are well known GOP mouthpieces.

What we do about this....idk...

Yup. And we aren't going to be 100% and mistakes will be made. The important this is we just keep putting effort into it the boycott will get stronger and stronger as we learn more about where products are made. And really most of the effort is going to be in the beginning, once you've figured out what your new preferred brands are, it starts getting easier.

A little tip I find useful.... look at the products in your cupboards and take note of which products are US and which are not. It's a lot more chill to do this at home than in the grocery store. Makes grocery shopping go a little faster when you don't have to look at the labels of everything while in the store.

This thing has the Maple leaf. Must mean it's made in Canada from our famous home grown Canadian Oranges.

It's great that you've pointed this out and I hope there's more awareness about it. In practice, it's not hard: Buy from candian-owned small businesses who manufacture in Canada.

In my not-at-all-humble opinion, most of your examples are all shit you shouldn't be buying in the first place:

• We have copious amounts of local craft beer. Never buy the big brands, they're all swill. If you actually drink craft beer, you'll know which brands, like Creemore and Millstreet, are fake craft.

• Nobody should be buying anything from Coca-Cola in the 21st century. We've known pop is terrible for your health for like 50 years. They're a shit company who is the biggest polluter of plastics in the world.

• Canada Goose is for tools with no taste. By the time any trendy fashion company gets bought out, it's not cool anymore.

All we have to do as a nation is just put that little extra effort into learning about what we're buying and making different choices, and it's actually great that we're all doing that because we should have been doing it all along.

Maybe one approach could be to avoid American wherever possible, but without inconveniencing yourself too much. So for example only buy on Amazon after you've tried to find other suppliers first. And yes definitely figure out how American any given product is, check the alternatives and buy the lesser of the available evils.

You KNOW that the Westons are dumping tons of money into astroturfing this "Canada First" bullshit.

Just buy the most Canadian thing you can find. If it's made in Canada, it still means part of the supply chain is in Canada and supporting Canadian businesses.

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

This only matters for perfectionists in an all or nothing sense. If you give the USA $0.60 for every $1 you used to it will hurt their economy.

I know it's easier said than done. I also believe in not making perfect the enemy of good. I'd rather have the whole population of Canada doing as much as they can, even if it means still buying certain American products on occasion, than only a few people making a 100% break.

If the company is Canadian, then they're paying Canadian taxes. Like, we don't make rice in Canada but I'll buy from 555 which is a local importer instead of Uncle Ben. Or for example, I try to buy Canadian soap but if I can't, I buy French brands.

I buy Canadian first, anything but US second, any effort is good, there's no way you're gonna have a 100% local economy anyway...

The whole idea of the movement is to buy more consciously.

You can spend hours of your life and a bunch of extra money to make sure you are lining the pockets of the right oligarchs, but you can't be bothered to stop abusing animals every time you open your wallet.

In a globalized economy it’s really difficult and nearly impossible to buy something completely made in Canada from start to finish.

I don’t think there’s a single tannery left in Canada at this point, so you might get a nice leather jacket made in Canada, but the Hyde was tanned in the U.S. or elsewhere.

I could be wrong. Doesn’t matter though, we as Canadians need to start manufacturing our products back here in this great nation and work with countries that aren’t the US that stand for free trade and democracy.

The U.S. at this point is no longer a partner, friend, or ally. We can do better Canada! We will do better!!

A big one is getting people to stop shopping at Loblaw-owned businesses. There is a daily barrage of complaints, rants, and vents about how awful Loblaw is and yet people keep shopping there. I worked for them for 4 years - and I experienced firsthand how many customers expressed disgust at the company and yet returned literally the next day. And the day after. And the week after. And the month after. I live in an area with a LARGE amount of alternative grocery stores and yet they kept returning.

I understand that not everybody lives with alternative grocery stores nearby, but there are still other options. Local butchers, dairy producers, bakeries, produce markets, etc. Many of which will even do delivery or advanced ordering for quick pickup. And they might even be cheaper and certainly better quality!

The parasitic scum that are sucking us dry are not just American. They are Canadian too and people need to start taking that seriously.

I'm not Canadian but I greatly support these measures, so if I may I'd like to weigh in.

I think that manufacturing country and ultimate ownership are probably the biggest key factors, as they dictate most where the lion's share of money flows in a consumer economy. For example, if there's American investment/VC/private equity for a company but it's like 10%, it's not great but definitely not as bad as a completely international company with locations in Canada.

If you want to get super fine-gained, you can even dig into whether a company outsources a significant portion of its auxiliary labor (e.g. digital infrastructure, customer support, shipping) to international firms, as that can make a difference as well.

Component sourcing is also important but there are a lot of cases where domestic isn't as feasible due to global supply chain reasons. That's one that's going to be much more industry specific. Like, if you're buying furniture and the wood comes from abroad when there's a robust domestic timber industry in your country, I think that should be a red flag.

Coming to a final determination on any company is going to be one of those things that exists on a sliding scale and probably would benefit from some sort of scoring effort. Either way, my verdict is that any measure that boycotts the US is worth the effort if it's done by enough people. Even a few loonies per person spent on local vs international over a broad enough group will make a noticeable impact.