iaink

Does whether something you are considering buying is made in Canada influence your buying decisions?

Cars, Furniture, that sort of thing, there are still some things that dont come from China.

dbd33

Made in Canada, no, I don't have much connection with the Canadian economy. Made in China, yes, I used to frighten small children by banging on the table and demanding to know "how many dinners did the Taiwanese put on this table?!".

jericho

I've become very cynical towards these "Made in ......" stickers. The reality is that it's very easy to label something as being made in Canada without it actually being made in Canada (eg/ maybe it was packaged in Canada, or simply assembled in Canada).

Does it matter to me, or does it influence my decision to buy it? No.

iaink

Hard to argue that a Honda Civic isnt actually made in Canada, while a Hyundai Elantra quite clearly is not...

The lease on my civic is ending in a few months, time to pick its replacement. 4200 jobs and a billion dollars a year in local trade, plus the fact that the old civic was pretty much flawless is hard to ignore, although the competition also has good products that may be "better value" or more engaging to drive... decisions decisions

Maybe the fact that I work in manufacturing and take jobs going offshore in the name of short term gain as a bit too close to home for me is part of that.

MikeUK

Yep... and not always for the positive...

These days with ebay I'll by my electrical items direct from China and save over 60%..that where they’re made and I don’t see why I should fund the North American middle men

I consider it a plus for a car if that meant it was Canada and not the US, but I rank far-eastern and European manufacturing higher
Furniture a plus, just because it means its locally built and has probably traveled less, but not at a significantly increased cost!

Souvy

In the days before I moved here, I was a trade promotion officer with the CHC in London. It was our job to help Canadian companies get their products into the UK. Pretty much the first question we'd ask companies that came looking for help was about 'Canadian content'. If the product wasn't largely made using Canadian materials and labour, they'd be told to do one. It was policy across all missions. I imagine it still is.

It was preferable for the applicants to get snotty about it. We could then hand them off to the specialised unit in Ottawa that did nothing but tell people to do one.

iaink

So out of idle curiosity what sort of canadian content was sold into the UK?

Canadian cheddar and the occasional bottle of Rye Im hard pushed to think of much?

ultrarunner

Does not mean diddly squat to me.....

Most people that jump on that, don't walk the walk or live by it. You go to their place and they have Japanese TV and other electronics...what happened there then ?

R I C H

So, are you saying that if you've a desire to buy products that originate here, but they're just not available, you should just go without?

You need to be a little more realistic about what's feasible, and not critically suggest a hardline attitude is the only way to hold up such ideals.

Aviator

Maybe because TVs and most other electronics are not made in Canada? Few TVs are made in Japan either now.

Tangram

Doesn't mean anything to me. Neither did Made in Britain which became in vogue in the 70's.

Aviator

We always buy domestic first if it is available, or US if not Canadian. In business we have steadfastly resisted off shore, although we do pay a premium for that, quality and supply is more consistent.

For household goods and electrical it is hard to find domestic producers. So many domestic companies are switching to off shore manufacturing. Saying that we did just pick up a set of pots and pans made 100% in Canada from Canadian materials.

We are becoming a nation of consumers not producers. The western world depends too heavily on Asia to do our manufacturing, which ultimately is damaging our economy and putting us economically at the whims of other countries.

ultrarunner

Read the title again Those that get off on that, can't then pick and choose

R I C H

Go ahead, roll your eyes. Whether something made here matters to you or not, doesn't mean you can't pick and choose, where choice is actually feasible. That's just your own strange interpretation.

iaink

Some people actually bothered to read the post, not just the title